EPISODES 



CLERICAL AND PARISH LIFE 



WITH OTHER 



Sfcetcbcs on Cburcb Subjects 



CONTRIBUTORY TO 



CHRISTIAN UNITY. 



/ BY 

WILLIAM STAUNTON, D.D. 

AUTHOR OF "ECCLESIASTICAL DICTIONARY," ETC. 

I 1 




NEW YORK 

E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. 

COOPER UNION, FOURTH AVENUE 
1886 



The Library 
op Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1886, by 
WILLIAM STAUNTON 



TROW'9 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY, 
NEW YORK. 



PREFACE. 



HE main object of the present work is to 



JL place in contrast several of the leading prin- 
ciples of the Anglo-Catholic or Anglo-American 
Church (commonly called " Protestant Episcopal "), 
with certain errors and misapprehensions very gen- 
erally entertained concerning those principles. The 
advance of the Church in the United States and 
Territories, though rapid and full of promise, has 
been seriously retarded by obstructions arising from 
inherited prejudices, the unfavorable bias acquired 
under sectarian systems, and misconceptions of the^ 
Church's real origin and nature, and of the position 
which she occupies in regard to other religious 
bodies. Many of these popular errors have, unfor- 
tunately, found their way into the Church itself, and 
exercise more or less influence in determining the 
grade and force of pastoral teaching. They are re- 
movable only by a gradual acquisition of knowledge, 
and by that breadth and vigor of mind which are 
gained by breathing a Churchly atmosphere. Cleri- 
cal life has thus a double aspect — the care of those 
born and bred within the fold of Christ, and the far 




iv 



Preface. 



harder task of giving form and symmetry to the 
minds of people daily flocking into the Church, but 
who, for lack of time, opportunity, or perhaps depth 
of interest, do not bring themselves into harmony 
with their Churchly surroundings. 

In depicting, under various forms, the strifes nat- 
urally arising between adverse private opinion and 
the Church's teaching ; and the struggles often oc- 
curring in parish life between the faithful pastor and 
the uninstructed layman, preference has been given 
in several cases to the narrative form, in order to add 
interest to the discussion of principles and objections 
by associating them with personal characteristics, 
and with the incidents and scenery of ordinary life. 
Some of these chapters, however, are based on act- 
ual facts known to the writer, and suggestive of 
the special course of thought with which they are 
clothed. A few other chapters are inserted to throw 
light on sundry questions concerning which errone- 
ous opinions are widely prevalent. 

Only one article (" The Priest and the Neo- 
phyte ") has before appeared in print ; and it is here 
given, in a rewritten form, to illustrate a popular 
mistake concerning " conversion." 



New York, October 12, 1886. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



Preface, iii 

I. — An Independent Thinker, i 

II. — 44 Like Noah's Weary Dove," . 10 

III. — The Church by " Preference, 7 ' . . .26 

IV. — A Bible Christian, 40 

V. — S. Agatha's Sunday- School, . . . .64 

VI. — S. Agatha's Sunday-School (Continued), . 72 
VII. — S. Agatha's Sunday- School (Concluded), . 90 
VIII. — The Priest and the Neophyte, . . . 105 
IX. — The Priest and the Neophyte (Concluded), . 128 
X. — Faith, Views, and Opinions, .... 142 
XI. — Sectarian Foundations Unscriptural, . . 154 
XII. — An Aged Lawyer's Investigations, . . .167 

XIII. — Lines of Transmission, 179 

XIV. — A Mother's Novel Ideas about Baptism, . 189 
XV. — "Not Discerning the Lord's Body," . . 197 

XVI. — The Church's Native Language, . . .210 
XVII. — A "Professor of Religion," .... 221 
XVIII. — a Requiescat in Pace," 230 



CHAPTER I. 



AN INDEPENDENT THINKER. 
HILE standing on a dock by the side of the 



V V St. Lawrence River, on a bright summer 
day, I observed, not far off, an elderly man, whose 
downcast looks and abstracted air seemed quite out 
of harmony with the exciting scenery around. I 
soon recognized in him a fellow-townsman, who, like 
myself, was on a summer trip, when we thus acci- 
dentally came together. As he was not one of my 
parishioners, nor likely to become one so long as 
he was unfriendly to the Church, suspicious of the 
clergy, and by no means a model of temperance, I 
merely gave him a passing salutation as he drew 
nearer ; for I knew by experience that this would be 
safer than an attempt at conversation, which would 
be very certain to end in a wrangle. 

It turned out, however, that I was not to make 
good my escape on these easy terms. He had a 
fancy, as I soon discovered, for a tilt on the spot 
with a clergyman ; and it is safe to say that, if self- 
confidence could carry him through, he was admir- 
ably fitted for the occasion. Without regard for cere- 




2 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 

mony or waste of words he then stepped in front of 
me, and let loose his notions about things religious 
in a speech after the following fashion : " Parson, I 
drop in at your church sometimes because I like to 
hear the music. As to the preaching, I don't 
think I am any the worse for it, which is a good 
deal to say in these times. But, after all, if there is 
another w T orld (as you say) I think / know as muck 
about it as you do" It was a rough speech, to be 
sure, and not remarkable either for beauty or origi- 
nality. But there was a touch of honesty about it 
which I was bound to respect ; for I knew that it 
exactly expressed its author's mind. And so I gave 
him the equally honest reply : " Possibly what you 
say is true. And possibly, also, you know much more 
about the other world than I do, if your sources of 
information are better than mine" This turn of 
things he did not expect; and as there was now 
nothing left to quarrel about, our exchange of ideas 
came to a very natural end, without much credit to 
its promoter or serious damage to myself. 

I had long known this man, and it Avas not diffi- 
cult to form a right estimate of one who valued his 
own opinions on religion at so high a rate that he 
gave expression to them on all occasions without 
the slightest reserve. His mind was naturally vig- 
orous, and not wanting in clearness of discernment 
except on religious subjects. For want of early dis- 
cipline and culture there was also a certain brusque- 
ness or self-assertion in his manner, which proved 



An Independent Thinker. 



rather repellent than attractive, especially as it had 
led him into the habit of " speaking his mind " (as 
he called it) in bluff, unqualified, or sarcastic terms, 
which forbade any near approach to him in cool ar- 
gument. I do not know how it came about, but so 
it was, that any reference to religious doctrine or 
principle seemed to provoke him and stir up his re- 
sentment, as if there lay concealed in every allusion 
to holy things some personal reflection which it was 
his duty to confront at once with becoming dignity. 
Whether it was conscience, or pride, or both to- 
gether, or a sense of disgust at the popular methods 
of bringing men under religious influence without 
much regard for Christian ethics, which gave rise to 
this unfortunate irritability, it would not be easy to 
decide. It was an obstruction, at any rate, to all 
friendly intercourse with him on religious topics ; 
and all the worse when it led him to believe that 
a clergyman could have no other interest in him 
than the gaining of a proselyte or the renting of a 
pew. 

There was doubtless another and more secret rea- 
son for the bad temper of my old neighbor, the dis- 
trustful 'tone of his judgment, his censoriousness, his 
illimitable self-esteem, and the asperity with which 
he was accustomed to set forth his sentiments re- 
garding the Christian faith. Perhaps it may not be 
unfair to surmise that at the root of all this there 
was something wrong and disquieting in the spiritual 
part of his nature — something far worse than any 



4 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

fault of the mere intellect. A shadow was upon him 
which he had no power to remove, though it threat- 
ened to destroy all the light and joy of his life. The 
scepticism of an irreverent age had insensibly gained 
hold upon all the better part of his nature, obscuring 
his conscience, controlling his will, and playing sad 
work with his reason, judgment, and even his com- 
mon-sense. An honest, truth-seeking doubter one 
can always respect, because we know that his diffi- 
culty is chiefly intellectual, and is open to correction. 
If he happens to be brought to a sudden halt before 
two diverging paths, we feel sure that he will hesi- 
tate only long enough to read his course from the 
guide-board, and will then proceed on the right 
path. But the confirmed sceptic would prefer to 
stumble along the other route — wrong though it 
may be — from mere opposition to established pre- 
cedent. In so doing, however, he not only loses 
moral force, but becomes, so far, a slave to an ill- 
regulated liberty, and a blind worshipper of what he 
misnames " freedom." It is easy, therefore, to see 
which way human nature will be likely to lean, 
when a choice is to be made between the claims of 
Divine Truth and the charms of what is supposed 
to be free thought^ however much such thought may 
be cramped with fetters. 

For, what is called " free thought " has so often 
betrayed itself by an overbearing and hostile pre- 
judgment of the very subjects which it had promised 
to investigate impartially, that its conclusions — even 



An Independent Thinker. 5 



for this reason alone — can have no logical or doc- 
trinal value whatever. The very terms, " free 
thought " and " free inquiry," have become, in ordi- 
nary usage, untruthful in their application, and mis- 
leading. They no longer describe that mental pro- 
cess which seeks truth alone at all risks, and admits 
no foregone conclusions to affect its verdict. The 
unbeliever would do well to remember that free in- 
quiry, properly so called, is as old as the New Tes- 
tament, with this distinction, however, that, under 
our Lord and His Apostles, it was serious and con- 
servative, accepting all established facts, and reason- 
ing with those facts in view ; while in modern times 
free inquiry has become irreverent, querulous, de- 
structive, and averse to the binding power of all 
sacred facts and principles. Our Lord Himself 
encouraged such freedom of thought as deserves the 
name, and even censured those who would not 6 of 
their own selves judge what was right. 5 The Church 
also has, from the beginning, promoted free inquiry 
as legitimate and healthful, when guarded against 
perversion, and kept strictly within its own appro- 
priate sphere. No one can read the ancient Apolo- 
gists and Fathers, the history of the first four 
CEcumenical Councils, and the marvellous results 
of deep and penetrating thought displayed in the 
writings of the Churchmen of later times, without 
admiration of the grand achievements of this spirit 
of inquiry in the development, illustration, and de- 
fence of inspired truth. On this point a late writer 



6 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



remarks : " Where will be found a succession of 
nobler intellects, of profounder thinkers, of more 
learned scholars, of more elevated moralists, of more 
subtle philosophers, or more successful toilers after 
truth, than within the pale of the Church of Christ ? 
Freedom of thought, largeness of affection, nobility 
of character, and political freedom, have all been 
nursed beneath the shadow of dogma. ... So 
long as the Church has been faithful to her trust, 
and has taught no dogmas but what are contained 
in, or may be proved by, Holy Writ, she has ever 
proved herself the nursing-mother of free inquiry, 
religious liberty, and an ever-advancing civiliza- 
tion." * 

' But these triumphs of free thought could never 
have been won, had not the activity and fervor of 
such thought been confined within the boundaries 
of its own proper province, instead of wasting its 
energy amid the fogs of conjecture and wild specu- 
lation. It is not absurd or unscientific to say that 
freedom must recognize and observe certain limita- 
tions ; for beyond these limits it degenerates into 
mere lawlessness, and ends too often in both moral 
and mental paralysis. Some light may be thrown 
on this by a simple glance at what we may every 
day see in the physical world. Nothing, for in- 
stance, seems more perfectly unrestricted than the 
freedom of a bird, as it traverses in all directions the 

*"The Dogmatic Faith, by Rev. E. Garrett, M.A.," 
p. 24. 



An Independent Thinker. 



1 



lower regions of the atmosphere. But there are 
higher regions, inaccessible to the strongest wing — 
regions where the inevitable death-chill threatens 
even the soaring ambition of the eagle. Our own 
natural powers and faculties also have limits ; and 
beyond or above those limits they cannot operate, 
unless by an accession of force from some external 
agency, i.e., from instruments, mechanical powers, 
supernatural aid, or Divine interference. The eye, 
by its native power, cannot discern the satellites of 
Saturn or the phases of Venus. The hand cannot 
raise a ponderous mass without aid from a source 
independent of itself. In like manner the human 
mind, however acute by nature and vigorous by 
dint of cultivation and exercise, is sure to find out 
at last the limit of its ability. It is not all-compre- 
hensive, nor able to discover and grasp by its own 
powers that class of truths which relate to the in- 
visible world, the purposes of God, the destiny of 
man, the origin of sin, the mystery of redemption, 
and the grave realities of a future life. Free in- 
quiry concerning revealed truths is bounded and 
restricted by the measure of the inquirer s ability. 
This ability may be great or small ; but it can 
never rise above its own level, or dominate over 
truths which it had not even the power to discover. 
Man's wit, at the best, is no competent judge of 
Almighty wisdom. If human reason makes un- 
numbered mistakes — as it does — within its own 
realm, we may anticipate still worse mishaps and 



8 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



failures when it ventures to deal with the deep 
things of God.* 

The grand error of modern free-thinkers lies in 
their oversight or denial of this simple fact. That 
there are truths of some sort which the limited rea- 
son of man is incompetent to discover and set forth, 
has been the belief of men in every age of the world. 
It is an opinion in which Jew and Christian, Moham- 
medan and heathen, coincide. And if, in the great 
universe around us, and in the designs of God, rel- 
ative to the human race, any such truths exist 
which it is important to our happiness to know, rev- 
elation not only becomes a necessity, but from its 
very nature a law which demands our belief, because 
it is nothing less than a voice from heaven. The 
primary and only real questions, then, to which the 
honest doubter should apply himself at the outset, 
are these, viz.*: Whether a revelation has been made, 
and whether that revelation was confided to " the 
holy Catholic Church," and has been safely trans- 
mitted through that Church to our own times. Let 

* u The subjects belonging to religion lie in their very nat- 
ure beyond the reach of possible human discovery. In re- 
gard to the nature of God and His purposes toward mankind, 
the human reason has no data for argument. The thoughts 
of God can, in the nature of things, be known to God alone. 
The wildest fanaticism has never claimed the power of dis- 
covering by intuition the thoughts of man ; and its incapac- 
ity to discover the thoughts of God must be as much greater 
as, on the theory of Theism, Deity transcends humanity." — 
("The Dogmatic Faith," p. 108.) 



An Independent Thinker. 



9 



him approach these questions with the reverential 
spirit, the purity of motive, and the resolute love of 
truth which distinguished the Christians of the 
primitive age, and the result will be the removal of 
" all scruple and doubtfulness " concerning the one 
true faith, and the Church, which is its " Keeper and 
Witness." 



CHAPTER II. 

" LIKE NOAH'S WEARY DOVE." 
HE " elderly man" of liberal sentiments, with 



JL whom we had an interview in the foregoing 
chapter, did not call himself a "Christian." And 
therein he was greatly to be commended, because he 
showed that he still retained his respect for truth. 
Nevertheless, if someone had said to him, " Sir, you 
are no Christian," or, " Sir, your conduct is not that 
of a Christian man," he would have felt aggrieved 
and undervalued. And here again he is to be com- 
mended, for thus bearing unconscious witness to the 
purity and loftiness of Christian morality. Though 
he was not himself a Christian, yet he knew very 
well what a Christian otigJit to be ; and this " ought 
to be " was nothing less than an ideal picture of 
Christian saintliness, photographed on his mind by 
that Light " which lighteth every man that cometh 
into the world." From this I conclude that the 
resentment of our elderly free-thinker, on being 
stripped of all Christian prestige and ornament, is 
not the least among the " Evidences of Christian- 



There is another and far more hopeful class of 




ity. 



n 



"Like Noah's Weary Dove." n 

men to whom we will now turn — a class probably- 
more numerous than we know — who are not infected 
and worried with sceptical notions, but are simply 
baffled in their honest efforts to reconcile the appar- 
ent anomalies of visible Christianity with the all- 
perfect delineation of the saintly life as found on the 
page of Scripture. Many of these victims of doubt 
are really " not far from the kingdom of God," and 
deserve sympathy more than indifference or reproach. 
Their trouble is not attributable to a wrong bias of 
the will, the heart, or the conscience ; but springs 
mainly from an antagonism between these elements 
of their nature and the persistent clamor of a capri- 
cious and undisciplined intellect. No one but the 
great Searcher of Hearts can take measure of their 
perplexities, or fathom the depth of their secret 
griefs. And the only wonder is that they should so 
much resemble those travellers on a broad prairie, 
who, having missed their way, stand gazing around 
for some beaten track to lead them out of the dreary- 
solitude, while, close by, but unrecognized, runs the 
well-marked highway, with its finger-board bearing 
the gladdening words, " This is the way ; walk ye 
in it." 

In writing these lines, I have had in view a very 
worthy neighbor of mine, whose outward respect 
for things sacred was not to be doubted ; but it was 
so mingled with indecision and shyness in religious 
converse, that no one could exactly define his posi- 
tion. He went to church, without being 3, Church- 



12 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



man ; thought well of John Wesley, but disliked the 
Methodists ; had a good word for the Presbyterians, * 
but abhorred the Westminster Confession ; and 
would even have favored the Romanists, had they 
possessed (like the Anglo-Catholic Church) an un- 
adulterated and unalterable Creed. And so, as 
time went on, public opinion ranked him alternately 
with believers and unbelievers, and finally settled 
down quietly by assigning him a conspicuous place 
in the school of Dotibters. 

Meeting him one day as I was strolling in our 
pleasant park, we sat down together in the shade, 
and talked for a while on generalities, as people 
commonly do, when the only use they can make 
of speech is to drive off, or relieve, the dreariness of 
silence. I had no reason to think that my compan- 
ion's reserve, which had chilled all the gossips of his 
acquaintance, would melt away in the presence of a 
clergyman. The chances were all on the contrary 
side. So, at least, I judged. But I was mistaken ; 
for, to my great surprise, some chance but timely 
word of mine unloosed the tongue of my reticent 
friend, and set in motion a torrent of pent-up 
thoughts ; for which thoughts — as was now quite 
apparent — I might long ago have opened an outlet, 
had I only made the venture. This sudden unveil- 
ing of a mind which had long been seeking truth by 
delusive tests and methods, was to me an unspeak- 
able relief. No mariner out at sea ever felt more 
jubilant on the lifting of a fog, or the return of sun- 



"Like Noah's Weary Dove." 13 

shine ; for my course was now quite clear. I knew 
enough about spiritual navigation to point out the 
rocks and shoals, among which the faith of my 
neighbor was in hourly danger of shipwreck ; and 
as things stood, I thought that my services as a 
pilot might not be untimely or useless. The reader, 
however, must not expect that, I can here set down, 
word for word, all that was said by my friend, or 
interjected by myself, as we sat together, not very 
unlike a priest and his penitent in an open-air 
confessional. I can only trace in outline, or by 
fragmentary sketches, that special bias, obliquity, 
or one-sidedness which so marked the current of 
this doubter's thoughts as to expose him to the 
drift of " every wind of doctrine," and deprive him 
effectually of the peace and " confidence of a certain 
faith." 

A man must be very far gone in doubt to say, as 
my friend did, " I would believe if I could. But I 
cannot create faith by the mere force of my own 
will. I cannot reconcile contradictories ; nor can I 
trace the straight line of truth through all the twists 
and entanglements in which the religious world bids 
me seek it." Speeches of this kind are, at any rate, 
of some service ; for they are such pictures of a 
man's own soul as we cannot otherwise obtain, and 
are likely to be accurate, because they are painted 
and exhibited by the man himself. It took not 
long, after this disclosure, to discover the real source 
of my friend's trouble. He had been for some years 



14 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

a reader, but not a very critical or close student, of 
the Holy Scriptures. In those Scriptures he read, 
in the words of Prophets, Apostles, and Evangelists, 
and in the sayings of our Lord Himself, the most 
glowing and vivid descriptions of the Christian 
Church ; its majesty, as a great empire of saints; its 
all-embracing dominion, from pole to pole, and from 
the rising to the setting sun ; its unity, as one vast 
kingdom, affording shelter and protection to all other 
kingdoms ; its comprehensiveness, gathering into 
blessed fraternity all races and conditions of men, 
rich and poor, wise and unwise ; its glory, as a king- 
dom of righteousness and peace ; its triumphant 
march, " as an army with banners ; " its supernatural 
powers, in the presence and might of the Holy 
Ghost ; and the sway of its resistless arms under 
the commanding sceptre of " the King of kings and 
Lord of lords." 

All this our friend had gathered, text by text, out 
of his Bible. And when the labor of many months 
was thus finished, he took no further counsel of pru- 
dence, logic, or common-sense, but sprang at once 
to the conclusion that he had now before him the 
iv hole testimony of God concerning the natter e and 
destiny of the Christian Church; and then, with 
equal haste and assurance he inferred that this 
testimony of God could have no other visible and 
legitimate counterpart or object than that part o{ 
the human race which is commonly known as " the 
religious world." 



"Like Noah's Weary Dove" 



IS 



Closing his Bible he took up a hymn-book, and 
after reading — 

"Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem rise ; 
Exalt thy tow'ring head, and lift thine eyes," 

he went out into the great " religious world " to see, 
in real and substantial form, that Church of which 
such " glorious things are spoken." 

And what did he there find to illustrate and con- 
firm what he had read, and was now waiting to 
realize ? Instead of resemblance to the testimony, 
he saw unlikeness ; instead of agreement, he saw 
antagonism. He found discord where he had pre- 
pared his ear for transporting harmony; and the 
din of conflicting voices where the Book had spoken 
of unity, peace, and concord. But for such sights 
and sounds he was not prepared ; and, distrusting 
himself, he inquired of those around him where, in 
this confusion of things, he should look for that 
Church which, long ago, was founded on the Rock 
of Ages, and against which even the gates of hell 
should never prevail. And as his eye wandered 
restlessly around, some one pointed out to him a 
venerable organization which, he said, was older 
than the most renowned of earthly kingdoms, but 
still vigorous, stately, full of might, and strangely 
attractive, though bearing the scars and tokens of 
many a conflict with foes and traitors in its eventful 
progress along the track of eighteen centuries. And 



1 6 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



while the doubter was gazing at this wondrous 
sight, he saw also, not far off from it, large groups or 
bodies of people, who, in days of strife and clamor 
(as he afterward learned) had forsaken this illustri- 
ous homestead of their fathers, and formed for them- 
selves a number of independent commonwealths or 
fraternities outside. 

Others told him that neither this old and majes- 
tic organization, nor those groups of Christian people 
which he had seen around it, were really the true 
and scriptural Church of Christ ; but that the Church 
of which Apostles and Evangelists had 'written was 
an invisible body, far transcending all earthly 
churches, sects, parties, or communities, and com- 
prising only the holy, pure, and faithful of all lands 
and ages, whose names " are written in the book of 
life." 

And still others told him that his investigations 
resembled those of a simple novice, ignorant of 
the new and progressive theology, and unenlight- 
ened by all that science and the " higher criti- 
cism " had revealed. For, though in older times 
the Church was really a magnificent spectacle, when 
the shades of literary darkness and the terrors of 
superstition held the nations in awe and abject 
servility, yet, under the sunbeams of modern in- 
telligence, the Church was in a gradual process of 
disintegration, and was doomed to leave only its 
foundations and ruined walls for the researches of 
the antiquarian and the curiosity of the historian. 



" Like Noah's Weary Dove." 17 



The enthusiasm of my friend was already begin- 
ning to wane. But he was not yet discouraged. A 
closer inspection might be made. Fie lived in a 
populous city, with much " religious world " in it. 
To the manifestations of this he now applied him- 
self. There were in the city more than a hundred 
houses of prayer, great and small, noble and ignoble. 
The doors of a few stood open every day, inviting 
the " children of the kingdom " and the crowd of 
passers-by to enter in and worship the Lord their 
Maker. The others, many in number, were barred 
against the penitent souls seeking refreshment and 
peace, except on Sundays, and at some intervening 
hours on weekly evenings. Many of these edifices 
had become specially sacred by an act of solemn 
consecration to the service of the Triune God. 
Many others were simply " dedicated " for religious 
uses, with an implied reservation for less sacred pur- 
poses. In some of these temples of God, divine 
worship was celebrated with all the impressiveness 
of the ancient ritual ; the Creeds of Christendom 
were reasserted by the uplifted voices of choir and 
people ; and the altars of God were encompassed 
by faithful souls seeking " the Bread of life." In 
others, the inspiration of a glowing ritual was want- 
ing ; the pulpit or platform dominated the altar ; 
the Churchly choir was supplanted by the frivolous 
quartette ; heaven's high praises were sung by the 
indevout, and Eucharistic hymns by the unbaptized 
and godless. It was also observable that, while 



1 8 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



some of these temples gave welcome and freedom to 
" all sorts and conditions of men," there were many- 
others gorgeously enriched for the comfort of the sons 
of affluence, but having no desirable place for Laza- 
rus and his friends, should they chance to return 
from Abraham's bosom. All these discoveries were 
made by my distracted friend as he roamed about 
in the streets and avenues of the great city. Weary 
and sad, he looked no farther, but sought relief in 
other scenes. 

He entered into a country village, told no man 
his errand, but waited, like Zaccheus in the tree, to 
learn, if he could, whether Christ and His loving 
disciples were near at hand. In the charming seren- 
ity of this outlying corner of " the religious world " 
he might surely find (as he hoped)' the Church of 
the Bible, attractive and lovely with all the adorn- 
ments of rural piety. He looked abroad in this 
abode of a thousand or twelve hundred souls, and 
saw the towers, the spires, and the weather-cocks, of 
five or six wooden structures, supposed to be palaces 
for the Lord, the universal King. In each of these, 
the people were taught a different Gospel — so dif- 
ferent that the law of spiritual cohesion among the 
people, had yielded — though Divine — to a more 
energetic law of repulsion, which was " earthly, sen- 
sual, and," at the least, human. In none of these 
houses had an altar been erected on which to cele- 
brate and offer up before the Divine Majesty, in 
holy Mysteries, the memorial of the great Sacrifice 



" Like Noah's Weary Dove." 19 



once made for the sins of the world. In none of 
them resounded the glorious liturgies of the faithful, 
or the manly proclamation of the one true Faith, 
or the warnings of God and His Apostles against 
the sin and the peril of " false doctrine, heresy, and 
schism." Wondering at all this, my friend was sim- 
ple enough to ask one of the hard-working but 
ill-paid " ministers," why it was that all those peo- 
ple, who believed in Christ, and no doubt meant to 
do right, had been so unwise as to burden them- 
selves with the cost and care of so many separate 
houses for the perpetuation of their strifes and di- 
visions, instead of rearing up one noble and spacious 
edifice, which, for ages to come, would be the crown- 
ing glory of their village, and where they might all 
come together to worship their God and Saviour, 
not with souls torn and racked by emulations 
and jealousies, but in joyous consciousness of being 
one body in Christ, compacted together, and hold- 
ing the mystery of the faith " in unity of spirit, in 
the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life ? " 

The inquirer now began to ruminate seriously on 
what he had seen, and try to find an escape from 
the labyrinth of his perplexing thoughts. Of one 
thing he still remained perfectly sure* — that the 
Bible, and all things written in it, were and must be 
infallibly true. But the evidence of his eyes and 
ears had made him nearly as sure that the so-called 
" religious " community, torn asunder by relentless 
faction, and stained with all the hues of a parti-col- 



20 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



ored Christianity, could not be that one holy Church 
"which prophets and kings desired to see," the city 
of God, the earthly type and figure of the Jerusalem 
above. 

And so, at last, there came upon him an agony of 
bewilderment, and he was tempted to ask himself 
whether, after all, the Bible might not be simply a 
provision for the cultivation of the spiritual life in 
men as individuals, or unassociated in any organized 
body ? whether the Gospel was not purely a revela- 
tion of light and life for every mans own personal 
guidance, and needing, therefore, no external aids in 
the form of Churches, clergymen, Sacraments, rites, 
and modes of worship — these being, presumably, 
mere human inventions, inimical rather than help- 
ful to " the life of God in the soul of man ? " 

This temptation, however, passed away with the 
transient eclipse of his better judgment. For he 
knew, and still believed, that the Son of God had 
established on earth a great, visible , and 'imperishable 
Kingdom or Church, with power and authority to 
rule, with a positive faith to be everywhere taught, 
with a Ministry to guide, and Sacraments to bless. 
This vast outstanding FACT could not be gainsaid. 
It came as a direct obstruction to any theory of a 
purely spiritual religion, or an invisible Church, or a 
Church as only an intangible conception or dreamy 
idea. It meant a living, organized body — the very 
body of Christ, and as such it was a veritable 
and necessary part of the Gospel itself. But how to 



4 ' Like Noah's Weary Dove." 2 1 



make this great fact consistent with the outward phe- 
nomena of Christianity, this honest but superficial 
thinker knew not. And so it was that he came to 
the sorrowful conclusion already mentioned, that 
though he would believe, yet he could not. 

It was my turn now to speak, and I told my 
friend (with some warmth, I confess) that his con- 
fession, assertion, conclusion, or regret — whichever 
it might be called — was grounded on two or three 
of the most strange and inexcusable mistakes that 
he had probably ever made since the days of his in- 
fancy. What was it, indeed, that he wanted to be- 
lieve, and could not ? It was something which 
neither God nor the Bible had ever required him to 
believe ; something which he had neither the power 
nor the right to believe ; something which, after his 
long survey of facts, he was bound to abandon as a 
mere illusion. And what was that illusion ? He 
had been trying to reconcile two things, which, 
in their very nature, are irreconcilable — trying to 
identify the " One Holy Catholic and Apostolic 
Church " of God with that strange creation of mod- 
ern times, " the religious world." Already, in the 
course of his survey of things, some one had pointed 
out to him this venerable Church, the visible king- 
dom of Christ, an organization different from all 
others, and peerless in its grandeur and gifts. In 
contrast with this he had seen a multitude of com- 
peting sects, all claiming the Christian name, but 
disunited, self-originated, unhistorical, each bearing 



22 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



its own banner, with no alliance of mutual affection ; 
no unity of worship ; ao type, foreshadowing, or 
prophetic symbol in Holy Scripture, and bearing 
witness to Christian truth only so far as that truth 
accorded with human predilections and theories. 
To identify these two things would doubtless baffle 
the intellect of an angel : and no wonder that it 
led our visional*}' inquirer to the borders of unbe- 
lief. 

But (as we have said) our doubting friend had 
made still other mistakes. For, even if he had rec- 
ognized the one holy Church in the midst of the dire 
confusion around it, yet he erred in supposing that 
the Church, in its present state, must be free from 
fault or imperfection, and so brilliant with the holi- 
ness of all its members as to seem like a grand illu- 
minating body, resplendent and conspicuous amid 
the darkness of the world. Here, again, his Bible 
would have taught him better, had he read it more 
patiently. His search had been, not for (i the Church 
militant" but for the " Church triumphant ; " and 
therefore his ideal of it was far above the sphere of 
earthly things. He desired to see a Church on earth 
more glorious in purity than ever was known or 
probably dreamed of by Apostle, Evangelist, Saint, 
or Martyr. And because his ideal Church was thus 
more perfect than any institution he could find on 
earth, therefore he doubted. And, strangest of all, 
he doubted when the facts before him should rather 
have confirmed his faith. For what were those 



"Like Noah's Weary Dove." 



23 



facts but most unanswerable proofs that the Church 
of Christ is — and always has been — what the Lord 
Himself and the inspired writers said it would be ? 
Were we not told that there would be good and bad 
fish in the net, tares in the field, dead branches in 
the vine, trees with more leaves than fruit, rich soil 
and barren rock, selfish laborers in the vineyard, 
wise and foolish virgins, talents improved and talents 
buried, unprofitable servants, false brethren, saints 
and hypocrites, and every variety of grade even 
among the best and purest ? Precisely this is what 
we see in the existing Church, and w 7 hat we may 
read of even in the Church under Apostolic over- 
sight. And yet, amid all her troubles, disorders, 
corruptions, sins, and failings, the Church, unlike 
" the religious world " around, still holds fast the 
faith " once delivered " to her, the true ministerial 
succession, the divinely instituted Sacraments, and 
that continuity of existence which mark her out as 
the very " kingdom " to which God's promises were 
made, and in which the Lord Himself will abide, 
" always, even unto the end of the world." From 
all which the inference is plain, that our doubter was 
not as familiar with his Bible as he ought to have 
been ; and for this reason he came to a premature 
and most unwise conclusion in supposing that the 
facts before him were irreconcilable with a hearty 
faith. 

And there was yet another point which he over- 
looked, viz. : that the power and worth of Christi- 



24 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



anity cannot fairly be estimated by a mere glance at 
its influence on the faith and piety of any given pe- 
riod, or any one generation, A test of this kind is 
little less than absurd when applied to a system full 
of Divine wisdom, and framed expressly for the ben- 
efit of the whole human race. Christianity is, in 
truth, the vast motive power which, for eighteen 
centuries, has been gradually but irresistibly elevat- 
ing the moral tone of the world, slowly working out 
a new and ever-advancing civilization, and bringing 
men nearer and nearer to that perfection for which 
they would otherwise aspire in vain. The " Gos- 
pel of the kingdom " has already done a mightier 
work in this direction than all other agencies com- 
bined. It is a simple fact which anyone can ver- 
ify, that Christian nations rule the world, and show 
themselves superior to all others in power, intel- 
ligence, science, morality, and ail other elements 
of greatness. It is evident to the commonest rea- 
son that there is something in Christianity — call it 
w T hat we will — which lifts man from the dust, and 
calls forth and exalts all the capabilities of his bet- 
ter nature. For what has made this difference be- 
tween the nations which now stand at the head of 
the ruling powers on the globe, and those other na- 
tions and empires which it is so easy to bring to a 
consciousness of their own weakness when they are 
put into competition with Christian powers ? Dif- 
ference of blood will not account for it ; nor will 
difference of climate, nor different habits of life and 



"Like Noah's Weary Dove!' 25 

social economy. For we may select any body of 
heathen people, and imbue them with the principles 
of the Gospel, and — without any change of blood or 
climate — they will reach, in one century, or less, a 
point of elevation in virtue and goodness which they 
would not otherwise attain though their dynasty 
should last to the world's end. And it is not too 
much to say that the civilized world would never 
have reached its present lofty standard of develop- 
ment, its high conceptions of moral science and ob- 
ligation, its grand ideas of God, of the universe, of 
human nature and human destiny, and of social duty 
and happiness, but for the direction given to human 
thought by the light of revelation and by the stir- 
ring energy of Christian principle and the Christian 
Creed. But still the Church on earth never was, 
and probably never will be, an institution of which 
every particular member shall be found holy, without 
fault, and resplendent with spiritual life. If the 
doubter looks for perfection, he will rarely find it in 
this present world. The Church may be well likened 
to a vast hospital, into which are gathered the spir- 
itually sick and helpless, that they may be healed 
by the Great Physician. In such a hospital we shall 
find weakness and infirmity, disease not yet removed, 
injuries not yet repaired, and palsied limbs not yet 
restored. And no one should expect to find there 
the glow of health on every countenance, and all the 
inmates rejoicing in the strength of vigorous man- 
hood. 

2 



CHAPTER III. 

THE CHURCH BY " PREFERENCE." 

PASSING along the street on one of my leisure 
evenings, I observed a number of people enter- 
ing a large and veil-lighted Hall, at the door of 
which was a placard or printed notice, in very bold 
letters, from which I learned that a Conference on 
Christian Unity would be held on that evening, 
and that everybody was cordially invited to attend. 
I went in, accordingly, and heard several glowing 
speeches, all of which, however, went round about 
the subject named, without ever touching it in any 
practical way ; and I returned home with the impres- 
sion that the unity so much longed-for, amounted 
only to a cessation of hostilities under a flag of 
truce. One of the most fluent and energetic of the 
speakers very happily and concisely expressed what 
appeared to be the sense of the meeting, in words 
which I wrote down at once on a card ; and I in- 
tend to use them as a text for the present chapter. 
The words came in at the close of a very animated 
oration, and were precisely these : — " In my opinion, 
if a man has experienced religion, it matters little 
whether he belongs to the Episcopal Church, or to 



The Church by " Preference'' 27 

some other orthodox denomination. It is simply a 
matter of preference." 

The speaker was honest enough to call this his 
opinion ; and it will be a great relief to any reverent 
mind to know that it was nothing more. Neverthe- 
less, the vigorous and positive air of the utterance, 
emphasized as it was by both voice and gesture, 
seemed to indicate that the speaker regarded it as a 
most important verity, which ought to receive, with- 
out debate, the assent of every rational soul. People 
are apt to deliver their opinions in forcible terms, 
especially when declaiming on religious topics, 
which they have had neither the patience to investi- 
gate, nor the wit to comprehend. In this case, the 
orator was a layman; and was evidently not aware, 
that his assertion was not only a curious example 
of indiscrimination, but also a trespass on the region 
of the Faith. While opinion has, in the Church, a 
wide field in which to take free exercise, it may, and 
often does, overleap its proper boundaries, and claim 
the right of expatiating on subjects entirely out of 
its own province, — even on the prime articles of the 
Christian Faith, and the deepest mysteries of the 
kingdom of God. In the speech referred to, we 
have, (as I have just said,) an instance of this en- 
croachment of opinion on the domain of Faith ; * 
and it may be well to take some further notice of 
so grave an error, and point out its natural issues. 



* See Chapter X. 



28 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



When a man says that it is a matter of indiffer- 
ence whether he belongs to a religious sect, or to 
one of the great national branches of the holy 
Catholic Church, it is clear that the worth of such 
a judgment depends on the qualifications of the 
person who expresses it. An opinion is not in itself 
a fact, principle, or independent subsistence, but 
simply the judgment which one or another man 
happens to form on matters not admitting of dem- 
onstration, or of proof by conclusive evidence. That 
judgment is exactly parallel with the ability of its 
author. It is a popular saying that " one man's 
opinion is as good as another's." But it is not true. 
No one really believes it, when brought to a prac- 
tical test, except in things which are confessedly 
beyond the reach of the human understanding, or 
the powers of reason. No one believes that wisdom 
and ignorance are twin-born, and of equal authority. 
The decision of a learned jurist on some point of 
law, or that of an experienced soldier on a doubtful 
strategic movement, or that of an accomplished sur- 
geon in a debate about an amputation, would be of 
far higher value than the judgment of any number 
of men who were unacquainted with law, military 
science, or the resources of surgical skill. " What 
would be thought," says Mr. Ffoulkes, "of the 
scholarship of that man who professed to lecture on 
the speeches in Thucydides, the choruses of ^Eschy- 
lus and Euripides, the satires of Persius, or the 
annals of Tacitus, while betraying every now and 



The Church by (< Preference." 29 



then his inability to construe and parse plain easy- 
sentences in Latin and Greek Delectus ? " ( " Chris- 
tendoms Divisions" L, vii.) 

In like manner, the opinion on which we are com- 
menting, being on a momentous religious question, 
must be estimated just according to the degree in 
which its speaker had qualified himself to take a 
fair, reverent, and discriminating view of the grounds 
on which such an opinion rests. We do not know 
precisely what those qualifications were. But of one 
thing there can be no doubt, viz., that the opinion 
was quite in harmony with " the spirit of the age," 
and with the vagueness and utter crudity of preva- 
lent notions concerning the Church of Christ. The 
case before us amounts simply to this : it is alleged 
that a man who has " experienced religion " is free 
(or at least not forbidden by that religion,) to choose 
between two things, one of which the speaker calls 
" the Episcopal Church," and the other an " ortho- 
dox denomination." And as it is also said that a 
simple " preference " is all that is required for a se- 
lection, it follows that these two things are assumed 
to be equal, or nearly so, in those qualities which 
constitute their value. The " Church " and the 
" denomination " are thus placed substantially on 
the same level, and it " makes little difference " (as 
' the speaker said,) which is selected.* 

* " It is but little to the purpose to say that, with all their 
differences, 6 all the denominations agree ' in fundamentals. 
This is not true, for there is not a single article of the Creed, 



30 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Now it is not unreasonable to say, that an asser- 
tion which covers so much ground, ought to be sus- 
tained by such a body of evidence as will justify and 
fully account for its apparent boldness. It will 
therefore be worth while to enquire whether any 
such evidence can be found. 

The first of the two things named is " the Episco- 
pal Church ; " which title (we may remark, in pass- 
ing,) conveys no adequate idea of the body referred 
to.* What then, in reality, is that body ? Every- 
one knows that there are some things about it which 
\oo\l peculiar ) to say the least ; and those peculiari- 
ties may possibly help to a solution of the question. 
Nothing is more obvious to the whole community 
than the fact, that the Church here spoken of, re- 
gards herself as a body wholly distinct from the 

not one point of faith, upon which Christians, so-called, ex- 
isting at the present moment as detached and separate bodies, 
do not differ ; there is not, — it would not be too much to say, 
— one single text of Scripture, saving, of course, mere his- 
torical narrative, upon the interpretation of which all par- 
ties, or all i Churches,' would or could agree." (E?iglish 
Churchman.) 

* A true branch of the Church of Christ cannot be other- 
wise than " Episcopal." From the Apostles' days down to 
the present hour, in all lands and places where that Church 
exists, or has existed, she has been ruled and led along her 
shining path by Bishops. A Church without a Bishop was 
unheard of in all the length and breadth of Christendom for 
1 500 years. The invention of a non-Episcopal Church is to 
be ascribed to Protestantism. 



The Church by " Preference." 31 



Protestant " denominations " around her, and is also 
regarded as a distinct and exclusive body by those 
denominations themselves. In her formularies there 
is no recognition of those religious communities as 
" sister churches," or as sharers in an Apostolic lin- 
eage, or as in possession of a Divinely-commissioned 
priesthood, or as qualified to minister to the people 
a valid Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, 
or as having any historical proof and record of or- 
ganic unity with the Apostolic Church, — holy and 
Catholic, — of which we read in the Bible and the 
Creeds. This Church thus stands in the bold distinct- 
ness of an unique and well-defined body, conscious 
of the possession of certain essential properties which 
are not found in the Protestant sects. This strongly- 
marked distinction between the Church and other 
religious bodies, is not similar to that by which one 
" denomination " is distinguished from another, but 
springs from a far deeper source, and may, therefore, 
need some explanation. 

We read in holy Scripture that the Incarnate Son 
of God founded a CHURCH, and only one Church. 
It was a visible body, differing essentially from all 
other bodies, and yet resembling them in some of its 
external aspects. It is called by several names, and 
described under various similitudes, but all of them 
denoting one and the same great, Divinely-ordered, 
and permanent organization. That organization was 
visible to all eyes, — as visible as any earthly empire, 
state, or monarchy. Its Head and Sovereign, its 



32 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



chief rulers, its subordinate officers, and its subjects, 
were everywhere recognized, and its laws, principles, 
and discipline, were publicly proclaimed, and were 
known to all men, whether friends or foes. It is not 
merely likened to a kingdom, but repeatedly de- 
clared to be one,* and is called the " kingdom of 
heaven/' the " kingdom of God/' the " kingdom of 
Christ/' or simply " the kingdom." To prepare the 
way for this kingdom or Church of the Redeemer, 
S. John the Baptist went out preaching and baptiz- 
ing, on the very ground that " the kingdom of heaven 
[z^as] at Jiand" When our Lord also began to 
preach. His words and appeal were the same as 
those of His fore-runner ; and through all His min- 
istry on earth our Lord went about declaring the 
nature and destiny of this i: kingdom," — the coming 
Church, — unfolding its doctrines, illustrating its pure 
morality, prefiguring its Sacraments, foretelling its 
glory, and initiating its Apostles into a knowledge 
of its mysteries. And thus the King openly pro- 
claimed His kingdom, as the Divinely-instituted 
refuge for all who were to be redeemed by His 
blood, sanctified by the Holy Ghost, and made heirs 
of immortality. This kingdom of Christ, so fully 
described in the "Acts of the Apostles/' and in sev- 
eral of their Epistles, rapidly spread through all the 

* " It is evident at a glance that the prominent purpose of 
Christ when He was upon earth, was the establishment of a 
kingdom here." (Bishop T. M. Clark, D.D. Quoted in 
American Church Review, Oct., 1876, p. 485.) 



The Church by "Preference " 33 



then known world. Its standard was uplifted in 
every nation by the Apostles and their successors. 
And in that same early age, when Apostolic men 
were still living, the missionaries of the cross reached 
the shores of Britain, and there planted, deep in the 
soil, that living branch of the Catholic Church which, 
after a growth and development of seventeen cen- 
turies, is now — with its vigorous off-shoot in Ameri- 
ca, — a bright centre of light, spiritual life, and future 
promise, to all who are looking for a kingdom which 
cannot be moved. 

All this is written, because our orator, — for want 
of elementary instruction, — has ranked the so-called 
" Episcopal Church " among the modern denomina- 
tions , — overlooking altogether the important fact, 
that the Anglican Church, (the venerable Mother of 
the American Church,) was fourteen or fifteen cen- 
turies old before the Protestant sects came into exist- 
ence. It might also have been remembered that the 
prominent English-speaking denominations or sects 
had their rise in secessions from the Catholic Church 
of England. And those secessions were rashly made, 
either on merely local, semi-political, polemical, and 
metaphysical grounds, which have long ago ceased to 
be operative ; or, under a blind and indiscriminating 
onset against error, in which the gold and the dross 
perished alike in the general ruin. It is now very 
generally acknowledged, since better light has dawned 
on the minds of the separatists, that the original 
grounds of this great schism were ill-considered, in 
2* 



34 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



many points quite frivolous, and in all respects un- 
tenable, in view of the grievous losses thus entailed 
on future generations." 

We are now in a position to see what those two 
things really are, which are declared in our text to 
be so nearly alike that the choice of one or the other 
is a mere " matter of preference.' 3 The first of these 
things is a true branch of the " one, holy, Catholic, 
and Apostolic Church," the visible and Divinely-or- 
ganized kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. The 
other is a modern " denomination," consisting orig- 
inally of separatists from that visible Church or 
kingdom, who, without any Apostolic authority, or 
warrant of holy Scripture, formed themselves into 
an independent association, self-governed, and the 
sole judge of its own doctrine, ministry, worship, and 
discipline. Now if there is no essential difference be- 
tween these two things, we are bound either to deny 
the Divine origin and authority^ of the " Church," 
and thus reduce it to the level of the " denomina- 
tions ; " or else, to ascribe that origin and authority 
to the denomination, and thus elevate it to the level 
of the Church of Christ. But as the case stands, 

* The sense of this loss of Churchly character and prestige, 
is acutely felt in sectarian bodies, and accounts very natur- 
ally for the efforts made in late years to redeem that loss by 
the re-instatement of architectural, liturgical, musical, artis- 
tic, and aesthetic features, in their church-like edifices, modes 
of worship, and observance of customs and usages, most of 
which their forefathers would have denounced as Popish and 
Anti-christian. 



The Church by " Preference." 35 

the difference is really world-wide, certain as God's 
word, and insurmountable. 

If our orator had thought of this, his appeal would 
most likely have lost its most startling paragraph ; 
and his hearers would not have been led to wonder 
how such words as these following ever crept into 
the Church's Litany : — " From all false doctrine, 
heresy ', and schism, Good Lord, deliver us" 

There are people in the world who do not readily 
discern differences in things that are various ; but 
see them distinctly in things that are identical. 
With those people, the Nicene Creed and the Say- 
brook platform are simply two sectarian Confessions 
of Faith. In their judgment, it is superstitious to 
pay honor to a Church relic, but not superstitious 
to pay the same honor to a piece of Plymouth Rock. 
There is no end to this confusion of ideas, when men 
abandon even their common-sense, and follow " the 
devices and desires of their own hearts." An unbe- 
liever sees no difference between freedom of thought, 
and a denial of God and holy writ. The Commun- 
ist sees no difference between theft, and the appro- 
priation to himself of other people's property. The 
Socialist sees no difference between the reign of lib- 
erty, and the horrors of anarchy. The old Puritans 
saw no difference between the reverent service of 
God, and the destruction, ruin, and pillage of His 
sacred altars and temples. And there are many 
others who see no difference between the infallible 
word of God, and their own private and fallible spec- 



4 



36 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



illations. The Christians of New Testament times 
were taught to discriminate. And one of their first 
lessons in this department was, to C£ mark them that 
cause offences,"' and who, in so doing, prepare the 
way for the entrance of schism. The Apostles knew 
that unity could not be broken, without the de- 
struction of that charity, which is greater and more 
God-like than either faith or hope. Hence, their 
Epistles abound with cautions against the first ap- 
proaches to disunion ; and the spirit of schism is de- 
nounced as if it were the plague and blood-poison of 
the " body of Christ." 

Returning to our text, it may be observed that, if 
the Church and the sects were really on an equality, 
no one would need to be very scrupulous about 
points of disagreement, either in doctrine or usage ; 
and the transition from one to another of those 
bodies, (from the Church to a sect, for instance,) 
would touch no vital principle, but be chiefly, as 
the orator said, " a matter of preference." It is 
very certain, however, that S. Paul would have de- 
cided otherwise, or he would not have crushed the 
life out of the first germs of sectarianism, as soon 
as they appeared in the Church at Corinth. S. 
Peter also would have decided otherwise, or he 
would not have said, " be ye all of one mind, and 
love as brethren." And S. John would have de- 
cided otherwise, or he would not have given warn- 
ing about some " who separate themselves, having 
not the Spirit ; " nor would he have said that " a 



The Church by " Preference^ 37 



man who is a heretic " should be rejected, and ac- 
counted unworthy of Christian fellowship. Imagine 
S. Paul saying to the Corinthians, " Dear brethren, 
I hear that there are divisions among you. I am 
sorry for it ; but I suppose it cannot be helped, so 
long as human nature is what it is. I beseech you, 
then, not to disturb yourselves about those little 
differences which are sure to spring up. You know 
that Cephas, Apollos, and I, are on the best of 
terms; and it matters very little which of us you 
prefer, if (as I hope,) you have experienced religion." 
Now if it is inconceivable that S. Paul could thus 
have addressed the schismatically-minded Corin- 
thians, what must we think of our orator's speech, 
which is the same thing in all essential points ? 

We come, then, to this conclusion, viz., that if 
the right idea of the Church of Christ is that of 
an unlimited number of discordant parties or de- 
nominations, we have reached the time when we 
stand sorely in need of another New Testament, 
in which unity shall be accounted impracticable, 
schism commended as a healthful exercise of Chris- 
tian liberty, brotherly-love treated as a pious 
dream, the old Faith revised or expurgated, and 
" Jerusalem, our happy home," dismantled and torn 
down, to be reconstructed on a new model embody- 
ing the latest results of modern enlightenment. 

It is a sad thing that there are loose thinkers every- 
where in this troublous world ; and it is still more 
sad to know that some of them are to be found 



38 Episodes in Clerical <X7id Parish Life. 



within the Churctis area, greatly to the discomfort 
of loyal, faithful, and Christ-like souls. The ruling 
error of their opinion is the assumption, that the 
Church is neither more nor less than one of the 
" denominations " of the age — a corporation having 
no antecedent, or, at least, necessary, connection with 
the original and historical Catholic Church. Such 
an error is, of course, only remarkable as an indica- 
tion of the extent and the depth of popular igno- 
rance and credulity. There are thousands of men, — 
even educated, honest, and devout men, — who have 
yet to learn that the Anglican Church is older than 
the British Parliament, and older than the realm 
of England itself ; that, long centuries before King 
Henry VIII. lay in his cradle, this same Anglican 
Church had purged the land from its ancient idola- 
tries, and brightened every hill and vale with the 
light of the everlasting Gospel. To regard it, there- 
fore, as one of the products of the Reformation, is 
to contradict the testimony of all history. Just as 
well might it be asserted, that the American Church 
owes its origin to General Washington and an act 
of Congress, as that the Anglican Church was the 
creation of an astute monarch and an act of Parlia- 
ment. Human power, both physical and intellect- 
ual, has indeed strewn the world with monuments 
of its vast achievements ; but, as it cannot confer 
spiritual gifts, it has never yet succeeded in making 
either a Church or a Priest. — The American Church 
in thus asserting her true origin and order of exist- 



The Church by "Preference." 39 



ence, is not to be censured for exclusiveness or intol- 
erance. It is both her right and her duty to defend 
her own banner, and to exhibit to a distracted world 
the credentials by which the true Church of Christ 
has ever been identified. In no case has she, by her 
own act " unchurched " the denominations around 
her. Their separation from her communion and 
fellowship was their own voluntary act ; and that 
separation has been to her a source of enduring grief. 
They stand, therefore, on the grounds which they 
have deliberately chosen for themselves ; and if those 
grounds are untenable on principles accepted by the 
entire Catholic and Apostolic Church, the respon- 
sibility for " the divisions of Christendom " cannot 
be laid to the charge of a Church whose daily prayer 
is for " unity, peace, and concord," 



CHAPTER IV. 



A BIBLE CHRISTIAN. 

/*~"\NE of the most numerous of our religious sects 
is that of the " Abstract," or " Bible Chris- 
tians." These people do not associate together, like 
other sects or denominations, in a compact organized 
form, but are diffused or scattered abroad, preferring 
to mingle freely with all sorts of Protestant bodies, 
and even with the Church itself, where they can 
enjoy both privilege and protection, without con- 
tributing much, either as shining lights or zealous 
toilers, to the advantage of those around them. 

Mr. Broadsides was one of these Abstracts. He 
was a man of some note, and of large sympathies in 
one particular direction, — that of what he called 
" the inborn freedom of the human soul!" He was 
a diligent reader of religious papers, reviews, and 
pamphlets ; from which he sifted out what pleased 
him, and called it truth ; while all besides he rejected 
with judicial dignity, and called it dogmatical rub* 
dish. 

Mr. Broadsides had thus, in the course of years, 
laid up in his mind a large and very miscellaneous 
stock of religious ideas, which he had no disposition 



A Bible Christian. 41 

to systematize/lest they should take the form or 
semblance of a Creed, and thus put a check on " the 
inborn freedom of the human soul." And there was 
also another reason why he preferred a theology of 
many aspects, and capable of numerous forms and 
combinations. As he had gathered his notions of 
Christian doctrine from every quarter, and as every 
such quarter was (in his view,) more or less respect- 
able, it had occurred to him that the present state of 
division among Christians was not only needless and 
inconvenient, but had proved to be also very expen- 
sive. He thought, therefore, that the shrewd and 
far-seeing men of the several denominations could 
hardly fail to see that unity would be to them 
" great gain " even in the things of this world, as 
well as a help to their prospects in the world to 
come. Like many others whose airy faith delights 
itself in visions of a bright future, in which the lion 
shall lie down with the lamb, he spent many a leis- 
ure hour in ruminating on the most facile methods 
by which that vision might perchance become a sub- 
stantial reality. And it seemed to him, at last, very 
surprising that so much should be said and written, 
and preached about Christian unity, and so much 
time lost, when so easy a remedy for all the quarrels 
of really pious people might be found in a grand, 
liberal, and comprehensive platform, on which all 
who believe in the Bible, (at least, all Protestants,) 
could come together under one banner, and agree to 
bury all their differences in the Golgotha of the de- 



42 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



parted, without a sigh or a mourning tear, but with 
a fervent hope that what they had buried would_ 
" rest in peace." 

But this was only one among many of Mr. Broad- 
sides' religious notions. I have called him an " Ab- 
stract " Christian ; and such he was, though not 
strictly a " Christian " at all, being unbaptized. 
Nor was he really a " Bible Christian," as we shall 
presently see. He was abstracted from much that 
was fixed, positive, and fundamental, in the Church's 
teaching, and floating about on an unbounded sea 
of opinion, with neither compass, rudder, anchor, 
nor ballast, but with all sails set to carry him 
whithersoever the wind might drive, or the reefs 
and rocks arrest him. 

On two points, however, his mind was made up ; 
1st, that he had a soul which was worth saving ; and 
2d, that he had a Bible to tell him how to save 
that soul. Thus provided, his way seemed clear to 
himself. What more could he desire ? Why should 
he look beyond himself and his Bible ? Churches 
and sects were mere appendages to the Bible, helps 
indeed to the ignorant, crutches for the lame, but 
not essential to one who preferred the " spirit " and 
" power " of religion to any trust in outward and 
visible forms. Of course, he needed no Priest or 
Minister to guide him ; for he could read in his 
Bible all that any Minister was authorized to teach 
him. " My religion," said Mr. Broadsides, " is a 
thing entirely between myself and my God. I per- 



A Bible Christian. 



43 



mit no Priest or Layman to interfere with the con- 
cerns of my soul." And if courtesy had not for- 
bidden a gentleman of such urbanity to say unpleas- 
ant things to a clergyman, he would have set forth 
his ruling" principle in terms like these : — " You, 
Sir, have an undoubted right to your opinions ; and 
so have I to mine. Perfect agreement is simply an 
accident which may, or may not, occur. You may 
honestly arrive at one view of a religious doc- 
trine or custom ; and / may just as honestly arrive 
at another. If / may possibly be mistaken, so may 
you. We are both in search of Truth ; and therein 
we are alike. But you have the privilege of speak- 
ing your mind from a pulpit, while I have not ; and 
that is the point in which we differ." 

It will hardly be believed, after reading this, that 
Mr. Broadsides, (though so decided an Abstract,) 
had a pew in church, and had also a great respect for 
the Prayer-book, — the chief objection to which was 
its discourteous habit of placing respectable people 
on the same footing with " lost sheep " and " miser- 
able sinners." There were several reasons why his 
choice fell upon the Churchy after a survey of things 
elsewhere. He disliked the Methodists, because 
they expected him to tell his " experience," which, 
as he conceived, was an intermeddling with his pri- 
vate affairs, and a matter of no concern to other peo- 
ple. With the Baptists he could not make himself 
comfortable, on account of their anxiety to immerse 
him, and thereby bring him into bondage to he knew 



44 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



not how many other " beggarly elements." In sev- 
eral other denominations he failed to find any con- 
siderable number of congenial spirits. The leading 
men and women of those parties had evidently some 
mysterious designs upon his soul. They dropped 
significant remarks into his ear, tried to make a 
" member " of him, gave him scores of tracts, and 
invited him to prayer-meeting; all which ended in 
nothing, for Mr. Broadsides still remained an Ab- 
stract or a Christian at large. As a final resort, the 
Church seemed to offer some attractions. There was 
a quietude, old-fashioned dignity, and unobtrusive- 
ness about it, which impressed him. The Church 
services won upon him, at first simply as an aesthetic 
exercise which it was pleasant to enjoy; and then, 
by degrees, as a grand and heart-stirring combina- 
tion of praise, prayer, and holy training for another 
world ; which inclined him to think that it might 
possibly prove to be the very thing of which he had 
read in his Bible, — the worship of God " in spirit 
and in truth." 

Looking upon things thus favorably, Mr. Broad- 
sides selected a pew in S. Agatha's church, and 
became, not indeed a Churchman, but an observant 
and respectful Church-goer, i.e., a kind of ecclesias- 
tical immigrant, not yet naturalized. With the rou- 
tine of the services he soon became familiar ; and it 
struck him that he could make use of them as a 
safe and helpful adjunct to his own scheme about the 
care of his soul. But, for a time there were some 



A Bible Christian. 



45 



things which perplexed him not a little, viz., the 

Creed and the Postures. The greater part of the 
Apostles' Creed he had no difficulty in repeating ; 
but the latter articles bristled with so many objec- 
tions that he felt himself obliged, when repeating 
them, to interject (silently, of course) a few words 
of explanation, in the manner following. " I be- 
lieve in the Holy Ghost," (that is to say, in a Divine 
influence ; ) " the holy Catholic Church," (i.e., in a 
general conflux of Protestants ;) " the communion 
of saints," (i.e., sociability among all living Chris- 
tians, and a poetic fellowship with dead ones;) " the 
forgiveness of sins," (i.e., without absolution by a 
priest ;) " the resurrection of the body," (i.e., so far 
as I can understand it ;) " and the life everlasting," 
(i.e., with a charitable hope for all, excepting per- 
haps the devils and anarchists,) " Amen," (i.e., So 
be it, on these terms.) 

Mr. Broadsides reconciled himself to the postures 
and their changes with much less trouble. He was 
a sensible man, capable of looking at all sides of 
everything, and willing to free himself from a preju- 
dice, so soon as common-sense revealed to him its 
absurdity. And thus he reasoned about postures. 
" A man must undoubtedly be in some posture every 
moment of his life. He was in a posture when he 
slept in his cradle ; and will be in a posture when 
he is laid in his coffin. There is no escape from 
postures, either for Bishop or Layman, Ritualist or 
Quaker. All, then, that we can do, is to regulate 



46 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 

our postures by some good and standing rule. And 
it seems to me that, on this matter, the directions 
in the Prayer-book are simple, natural, and suitable 
alike for a Prince and a rag-picker. If the Church 
had ordered that we should go on all-fours to our 
pews, and sit cross-legged and lazily during the Te 
Deum, Psalms, and hymns, and double ourselves up 
like slumbering bears, when we ought to be on our 
knees, I should have some objections to make to 
such postures, as unbecoming and ungraceful. But, 
as things are, I am content ; and the more so, as the 
rubrics appear to be on very good terms with the 
Bible." 

Had Mr. Broadsides been equally discriminating, 
and less tenacious, about some other points, rumors 
would never have been heard of several friendly con- 
flicts at the Rectory between Father Silas (the parish 
Priest) and his Abstract parishioner. Such- things, 
however, did occur, and cannot help occurring, when 
a faithful pastor finds among his flock a sheep of 
foreign breed with a frisky temperament, and unto- 
ward habits in spiritual things. It was not easy for 
the Priest to obtain from Mr. Broadsides such in- 
telligible views of his religious ideas, as might serve 
as a basis for the reconstruction of an ill-formed 
mind on more Churchly lines. Of course, there was 
no special reason why Mr. Broadsides should make 
a public exhibition of his theological furniture ; and 
so, it was only by degrees, and by chance words, 
that Father Silas became aware of his friend's pri- 



A Bible Christian. 



47 



vate interpretation of the Creed, and of his accept- 
ance of the Church chiefly as a place of refuge from 
what he regarded as sectarian annoyances. At last, 
however, as time brings many hidden things to light, 
Father Silas found out what Mr. Broadsides looked 
upon as his strong point, viz., (as before stated,) 
that as he had a soul of his own, so had he a Bible, 
which was all-sufficient for the saving of that soul. 

Father Silas was a man whose social habits and 
cheerful temperament made his visits always wel- 
come at the homestead of Mr. Broadsides. On 
those visits he made it a rule to repay the courtesy 
of his host by leaving behind him some short and 
pithy observation which that gentleman would be 
likely to remember. On one of these occasions, 
when Fathe'r Silas was about to depart, after some 
rather lively religious talk, he said very quietly but 
distinctly to Mr. Broadsides : — " If, as you say, your 
soul is your own, I should like very much to know 
how you came into possession of the property" 

" The most extraordinary speech that I ever 
heard," said Mr. Broadsides after the Rector had 
gone. " Why didn't he ask me how I came to have 
a body ; whether I got it by inheritance, or whether 
I bought it at auction, or imported it among other 
things in a lot of bric-a-brac ? " And thus, for some 
days after, he ruminated upon that parting speech, 
and worked himself into an agony over it. He 
looked for something resembling it in his book of 
conundrums, and in Dr. South's sermons, and in the 



48 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



" Anatomy of Melancholy," and among the f acetic? 
of Bishop Latimer, Luther, Sydney Smith, and Dr. 
Holmes, with no other effect than to leave him in 
doubt, whether the Rector meant it for a stroke of 
wit, or a sample of priestly wisdom. 

It was otherwise with Father Silas, who had sev- 
eral hundreds of souls to watch over, while an Ab- 
stract Christian usually limits himself to the care or 
the damage of only one. The pastor was also a man 
of some activity in parochial work, and an acute ob- 
server of the currents and cross-currents of popular 
opinion on religious affairs. In the study, and out 
of it, he had, therefore, more to think of than the 
fate of some casual seeds of thought (like the above 
speech,) which he had dropped by the way-side, or 
perchance on a dry and barren soil. 

In one of his perambulations about the parish, 
some days after this, he chanced to be passing by 
Mr. Broadsides' mansion, while that gentleman was 
amusing himself on the lawn with the antics of his 
favorite dog. Not far off, on a rustic seat, lay a 
Quarterly, not very unlike the " Westminster," 
which had probably inclined its reader to refresh 
himself with some bodily exercise. Father Silas was 
disposed to pass on after the customary civilities ; 
for he knew that though Mr. Broadsides' home had 
many attractions, yet it lacked the charm and fra- 
grance of a Churchly atmosphere. But its owner had 
an object in detaining the Rector ; and, in conse- 
quence, they were soon comfortably seated in the 



A Bible Christian, 



49 



parlor, where, before long, they drifted into a lively 
comparison of opinions. Mr. Broadsides, with his 
usual adroitness, led off the conversation in a kind 
of discursive prelude, light and sparkling, but finally 
dying out, leaving no trace behind. Then followed 
a gap, which Mr. Broadsides felt it incumbent upon 
him to bridge over by saying : — " By the way, Father 
Silas, that was rather an odd remark that you made 
the other day, just as you were going off." 

" What do you refer to ? " asked the Rector, 

" Well, the gist of it seemed to be that you doubted 
whether my soul was my own." 

" I recollect now," said the Rector. " But my 
intention was simply to suggest that there may be 
some reasons for believing that your soul is not your 
own, — that is to say, on what I take to be your no- 
tion of ownership." 

"Why, Sir, am I not a man, with a body and a 
soul in my own exclusive possession ? " 

"You are a man, no doubt," said Father Silas, 
" and so am I. But I should be very sorry if my 
soul and body were in my exclusive possession." 

" Then you are not as independent as I am ; for, 
above all things I stand firm on my own individual- 
ity ; and I am surprised that you should call in 
question so plain a matter of fact." 

" Perhaps you will understand me better," said the 
Rector, " if you will consider how it was that you 
ever came to have a soul and a body, and thus to be 
a man, and not a tree, a stone, or a horse." 
3 



50 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



" Of course, God Almighty created me, both soul 
and body." 

" Very true ; but did the Almighty ever create a 
human being without imposing on him certain con- 
ditions which seem to be the very terms or price of 
his existence ? " 

" Before I answer such a question as that, I should 
like you to explain yourself a little," said Mr. Broad- 
sides, somewhat thoughtfully. 

" When God gave you a body, for instance, it is 
very certain that He did not also give you such an 
unlimited right over it as is implied in a real owner- 
ship. He did not give you a right to destroy your 
body, or to maim, abuse, or deform it, or to put to 
corrupt uses any one of its members. A man's body 
is too ' fearfully and wonderfully made ' to be set 
free by its Maker, and abandoned to all the igno- 
rance, raging passions, and ungovernable caprices 
of the soul that dwells in it. It seems to me that 
on your theory of the sole ownership of your body, 
you may use your hands for murder and theft, your 
tongue for cursing, slander, and lying, and your brains 
for the devising and furtherance of all sorts of vil- 
lany, provided that you can only manage to baffle 
or bribe the police, or hide yourself in a foreign 
land." 

" O, no, no ! " said Mr. Broadsides very earnestly, 
" I would not carry things to that length for all the 
world. God forbid." 

" Yes, God does forbid ! But what then becomes 



A Bible Christian. 



of your * independence ' ? The truth is, that you, 
and I also, have a Master, a Proprietor, an Owner, 
whose right and title in us no man but a lunatic, 
or a philospher with distempered brain, can deny. 
For, how can you say that you are your own mas- 
ter, when you know that there is an external 
Power that mocks, with infinite scorn, all your 
grandiloquent boasts of independence, and controls 
you, commands you, and forbids you, under peril, 
to do what otherwise your passions or your self-love 
would impel you to do ? " 

" Well," said Mr. Broadsides, " granting all that 
in regard to the body, I think you will hardly strain 
matters so far as to say that the vast and wonderful 
powers of the human soul are to be crippled and 
tied down, so that we must be checked, and ham- 
pered, and lectured, in our search for scientific and 
religious truth, and in our struggles to rise above 
the ignorance, the musty beliefs, and the supersti- 
tions which kept our forefathers in bondage for 
many a long century." 

" Recollect," answered Father Silas, " that your 
rights over your soul are not supreme but condi- 
tional. As God never gave you a right to injure or 
misuse your body, much less are you permitted to 
injure or misuse your soul. As your soul is of a 
higher grade than your body, the conditions under 
which you are allowed to rule it are correspondingly 
far more stringent and imperative. The reasons for 
this are manifold. An injury to the body is (as a 



52 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



general rule,) instantly felt ; it gives pain, anxiety, 
inconvenience, and often imperils health, vigor, 
beauty, and even life itself. The dread of results so 
inevitable, is ordinarily a sufficient motive to vigil- 
ance in men's care for their bodies. But with in- 
juries to the soul, the case is quite otherwise. The 
human conscience is commonly less sensitive than 
the nerves. It does not instantly respond with a 
shock of pain whenever the soul receives a wound. 
The prick of a pin will send a thrill all over the 
body ; while a wicked thought or a detestable crime 
will often fail to disturb the soul. Besides this, 
dangers to the body are seen and known even to a 
child, and no sane man dares to trifle with them. 
But the dangers of a soul are not equally manifest 
and scrupulously guarded against. Nor are the 
consequences of an injury to the soul as instantane- 
ously apparent and felt, as those of an injury to the 
body. Therefore we are less able to take care of 
our souls than of our bodies, without help from a 
Power far wiser than ourselves." 

" There's a good deal of common-sense in that, 
no doubt," said Mr. Broadsides, " and some things 
so new to me that I must take time to consider 
them. You have a curious way of looking at things, 
which I am not used to, and I have to guess at 
your meaning sometimes. At any rate, we seem to 
be running on different tracks, and I can't make out 
whether we are coming nearer together, or getting 
further off. You go for restriction, and I go for 



A Bible Christian. 



53 



liberty. What is to hinder me ? If I haven't the 
right to manage the concerns of my own soul, I am 
much mistaken. And what's the use of the Bible, 
if it isn't all I need to bring me to the kingdom of 
heaven ? " 

" I think the Bible itself would teach you other- * 
wise," rejoined Father Silas. " If you take it for 
your guide, you must do whatever it directs. If it 
tells you what you must ' do to be saved,' you have 
no choice but to do that thing. The Bible tells you, 
for instance, that you must 6 put on Christ ' in bap- 
tism ; but the Bible cannot baptize you. It tells 
you that unless you partake of the Body and Blood 
of Christ, there is no life in you ; but the Bible can- 
not administer a Sacrament. It tells you also, 
among many other things, that you must cast down 
every lofty imagination, and bring ( into captivity 
every thought to the obedience of Christ,' other- 
wise you have little prospect of ever getting (as you 
say,) into the kingdom of heaven." 

Here Mr. Broadsides remarked with some ani- 
mation, "I hope you don't think that I would wil- 
lingly go against the Bible ? " 

" It would distress me to think so," said the Rec- 
tor. " But I am bound to say that you have adopted, 
and are acting upon, a principle, — no doubt uncon- 
sciously — which you never found in your Bible^ and 
which nullifies all the teaching of Christ and His in- 
spired Apostles." 

" What principle do you mean ? " 



54 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



" That of your own right and ability to be the sole 
judge, director, and supervisor of all that concerns 
the salvation of your soul. You have said that your 
soul is your own exclusive property, and that you 
can allow no outside interference with it, except the 
Bible." 

Mr. Broadsides thought for a moment, and then 
answered : — " It is natural enough for you Clergy- 
men to take the opposite ground. But, if the Bible 
is not sufficient for the saving of one's soul, what use 
is there in scattering millions of copies all over the 
land, and letting every man believe that he is free to 
enjoy his own opinions, just as I do ? But still, if I 
am wrong, I am willing to hear what can be said on 
the other side." 

With this assurance, Father Silas proceeded thus : 
— " You have said, in plain and emphatic terms, 
that your soul is in your own keeping. In one 
sense, this is true. God has ' given ' you a soul, 
endowed it with many noble faculties, and with the 
possibility of enjoying a blessed immortality. But, 
in another and far higher sense, your soul is not your 
own, but is yours in trust only; and you will most 
certainly be held responsible for its care or neglect. 
God has never surrendered to you what I may call 
His right of 1 eminent domain ' over your soul. You 
have therefore no right whatever (as I have already 
said,) to risk its interests, to debase and corrupt it, 
or in any way to trifle with its eternal destiny. You 
have, of course, the power to do this, but not the 



A Bible Christian. 



55 



right ; because your Creator never gave you such a 
right. This is what the Bible everywhere teaches, 
— that same Bible which you accept, and are bound 
to follow. For, most certainly you did not make 
your own soul. You are not your own Creator. 
God is your Maker, and mine. It is He that hath 
made us, and not we ourselves. This is the voice 
of Divine revelation ; and it is the conclusion to 
which sound reason itself will be sure to bring us, in 
spite of all possible obscuring of the matter by the 
' great swelling words of vanity ' which we every 
day hear, and all the 6 oppositions of science, falsely 
so called.' 

" If then, you accept the Bible as your guide, it is 
not a very wise thing for you to assert that your 
soul is absolutely your own. For, if God should 
hold you strictly to your words, — what would be- 
come of you ? You could derive no benefit from the 
Gospel. For, your Bible, — in flat contradiction to 
your assertion, plainly says : — 6 Ye are not your own; 
for ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify 
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are 
God's.' (i Cor. vi. io, 20.) If you have thus been 
redeemed, you are the property of your Redeemer. If 
you have been ransomed, you are the property of 
your Ransomer. Hence, S. Paul says, 'Ye are 
Christ's; ' and again, 6 whether we live or die, we 
are the Lord's" From all which it is evident that 
the notion of a Christian man being his own master 
in religion, as in the ordinary things of this life, is 



56 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



as unlike the Gospel as it is at variance with 
one's common-sense. For, it overturns the whole 
idea of redemption, and destroys all healthful rela- 
tion between man and his Maker. 6 All souls are 
mine] are the words of God Himself; 6 as the soul 
of the father, so also the soul of the son, is mine] 
(Ezek. xviii. 4.) 

" There is no harm in self-reliance, if you are quite 
sure that you have within yourself that on which 
you may safely rely. A man may, for instance, be- 
come conscious of having mental or muscular power 
equal to a certain amount of effort or demand. 
Knowing this, he can safely rely upon it, and is 
right in so doing. And if he were able to ' take care ' 
of his soul by virtue of some power within himself, 
it would be sufficient for him to use that power, and 
to rely upon it. But it is very certain that no man 
can, in this way, care for his soul, though it is quite 
easy to lose it. And therefore, while it is entirely 
reasonable for you to take the Bible as your rule in 
spiritual things, it is just as treasonable to make 
your use of the rule dependent on its accordance 
with any opinions or fancies of your own. It is not 
your office to convert the Bible ; but it is the office 
of the Bible to convert you. 

" But you go on still further, and have intimated 
that, in the care of your soul, you permit no interfer- 
ence from either priest or layman. I take for grant- 
ed that this is a mere flourish of rhetoric ; for you 
could hardly expect any sober man to understand you 



A Bible Christian. 



57 



literally. And, in truth you have given me some good 
evidence of this ; for I, — one of the priestly order, — 
have been actually ' interfering ' with you and your 
soul, and lecturing you for the last ten or fifteen min- 
utes, without the least check or resistance on your part. 
And I intend — if you will still keep quiet, and not 
forbid me, — to go on a little longer in violating your 
rule, and showing you its logical outcome. By the 
word c priest, 5 then, you probably mean any one who 
is known as a Minister of Christ ; and you disallow 
the interference of any such Minister in the concerns 
of your soul. But here again you take a position 
utterly adverse to that holy book which you pretend 
to follow as your guide. Did not our Blessed Lord 
appoint a Ministry for the very purpose of so far 6 in- 
terfering ' with men's souls as to convince them of 
their sins, enlighten their ignorance, and bring them 
in penitence and faith to the cross of Christ, and 
carefully instruct and watch over them as those who, 
if left to themselves, would be sure to perish ? And 
were not all the Christians of the New Testament 
gathered into the one only Church of their Re- 
deemer, and lovingly tended, admonished, and fed 
with the very Bread of life by the pastors or 
' priests' whom God had set over them? Our 
Saviour, from the very beginning of His Ministry, 
taught men that religion was not a thing to be 
locked up in their own bosoms, like some myste- 
rious secret or charm ; but that it was to be an open, 
visible, and active power, of which none who pro- 
3* 



58 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



fessed it were to be ashamed, even under threats of 
martyrdom itself. Our Lord's followers were not a 
brood of Christians in the abstract, self-taught and 
self-governed ; but they were publicly known as His 
faithful and obedient disciples. They went about 
with Him. They formed one body, company, or 
Church, after His ascension. They did not indulge 
themselves in private notions or theories of religion, 
and contend that they had a natural right so to do, 
inasmuch as their consciences were their own, and 
as the light within them was all-sufficient for the 
welfare of their souls. On the contrary, every 
Christian was a member of the visible Church of his 
Saviour. No believer stood apart from the great 
c household of God,' expecting in this state of isola- 
tion to enjoy the benefits of the Gospel, and to share 
in its promises. There was only one rule for all, 
one body of truth to be believed, one course of life 
to follow, and one Master to serve. To stand alone, 
separate from the kingdom of Christ, was to be as a 
branch cut off from the living vine ; or like a sheep 
outside of the fold, or a limb apart from the body, 
or a stone not placed in the building, or a fragment 
broken off from a rock, or a spark dying out because 
it is no longer in the fire. Had you yourself lived 
in those days, it is not very likely that you would 
have told S. Peter, S. John, S. Paul, or any other 
Apostle of Christ, that you would 6 permit no inter- 
ference ' from them ' in the concerns of your soul.' 
If you had so told them, it is pretty certain that 



A Bible Christian. 



59 



they would have ' delivered you over unto Satan ' 
for punishment, without using many words about 
it.* But if such intellectual conceit was censurable 
in the days of the Apostles, it is not less so now ; 
because, in this very land, that same Apostolic 
Church and Ministry are appealing to you, and to 
all men, in Christ's name, and by His authority.' 3 

It was creditable to Mr. Broadsides that he lis- 
tened to these words of Father Silas with unflagging 
attention. But, being a prudent man, he ventured 
on no reply whatever, because he felt that his resort 
to the Bible in vindication of his theory, had been 
effectually cut off by the Rector, and the loss of that 
was the loss of all means of defence. 

After the interview was over, he went into his 

* On this point, Cecil, one of the most amiable of the 
English Low Church or Evangelical Clergy, wrote in these 
strong terms : — " I never choose to forget that I am a 
Priest (sic) because I could not deprive myself of the 
right to dictate in my ministerial capacity. I cannot allow 
a man, therefore, to come to me merely as a friend, on his 
spiritual affairs, because I should have no authority to say 
to him, ( Sir, you must do so and so.' I cannot suffer my 
best friends to dictate to me in anything which concerns my 
ministerial duties. I have often had to encounter this spirit ; 
and there would be no end of it, if I did not check and re- 
sist it. I plainly tell them that they know nothing of the 
matter. I ask them if it is decent that a man immersed in 
other concerns should pretend to know my affairs and duties 
better than myself, who, as they ought to believe, make 
them the study of my life ? " (Remains of the Rev. Richard 
Cecil, M.A.j Andover ed., p. 39.) 



6o Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



library, sat down, mused like an anchorite, and be- 
came profoundly dissatisfied, partly with himself, 
but chiefly with the Bible and Father Silas. As 
time, however, passed on, he gradually fell into a 
better line of thought, and began to doubt whether 
an Abstract or Rationalistic creed — so to call it — 
was as safe as the old faith of the Bible — the Faith 
which the Catholic Church has never ceased to 
proclaim. The one was certainly human ; and the 
other as certainly Divine. The one was a fluctuat- 
ing, formless, and misty set of opinions ; the other, 
an unchangeable, all-perfect record of eternal truth. 
The contrast, when thus plainly realized, had occa- 
sionally, but only transiently, taken hold of Mr. 
Broadsides' thoughts in times past ; but its direct 
issue in determining both the faith and the practice 
of every Christian man, had not struck him till 
pointed out by Father Silas. It came then with all 
the force of a new revelation, shattering all his confi- 
dence in self-reliance, and frowning on his contempt 
of Christ's own visible institutions. In the end, Mr. 
Broadsides happily found out the only true way of 
ci working out his own salvation," and we will now 
leave him, with a kindly " God-speed," in the hands 
of Father Silas, in whose presence, in due time, he 
publicly abandoned the sect of the Abstracts, at the 
same time that he renounced " the world, the flesh, 
and the devil." 

If there is any one thing which the religion of Christ 
utterly repudiates, denounces, and sets itself to root 



A Bible Christian. 



61 



out of every human heart, it is this solitary, self-ad- 
miring, and independent habit of mind, which makes 
a man feel and act as if he and his Maker were the 
only two beings in the universe, who are to be recog- 
nized in all the manifold duties and relations of piety. 
Of such people, the Rev. Edward Irving (Scotch 
Presbyterian,) thus speaks : — " Each man will read 
the Bible for himself, having a hearty contempt 
for creeds, and confessions, or orthodoxy. And fine 
work they make of it ! And they call themselves 
* Bible Christians ! ' Which men I have found so 
self-opinioned, so prejudiced against the most vener- 
able forms of the Church, so mighty in their own 
conceit, and so fond of innovation, that I have got 
an instinct of abhorrence towards them, and would 
rather hope to have communion with a superstitious 
Papist, than with one of these self-instructed, self- 
guided 6 Bible Christians,' as they are wont to call 
themselves in their contempt for all who have any 
reverence for the authority of the Church." {Quoted 
in Christian Remembrancer ; 1867, Vol. 1.)* 

* 16 There are people who are perpetually crying out, as if 
they would overpower the voice of heaven itself, 6 the Bible, 
the Bible, the Bible alone, without note or comment ; ' " 
[they want] " no authoritative interpreter, no witness, no col- 
lateral test, no providential check, no human chains and 
hindrances of any kind. . . . But how stand the facts of 
the case ? They alone will not in practice endure the Bible 
at any time or occasion i without note or comment.' . . . 
They must needs come in at every step with their appli- 
cations, and restrictions, and true senses, and spiritual 



62 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



The Apostles knew nothing of a religion which 
affects to be so " spiritual " as to dispense with the 
Church, and the Sacraments of God's own appoint- 
ment. Nor did they teach that the kingdom of 
Christ is an " invisible " body, to which men may 
belong, though not in communion with the visi- 
ble Church on earth. In short, the holy Catholic 
Church being the very " kingdom of Christ," it fol- 
lows that a man has no claim on its privileges, un- 
less he has become a citizen of it, and a loyal and 
true-hearted subject of its Sovereign. The Church 
being what Scripture declares it to be, our union 
with it is the visible proof of our subjection to the 
Son of God, just as our declining to enter that fel- 
lowship, or to be governed by it, would be an evi- 
dence of our indifference to His authority. The 
" Lives of the Saints " will illustrate this ; for, on 
that long and shining roll, we find not one who re- 
fused openly to " confess the faith of Christ cruci- 
fied ; " not one who lived and died unbaptized; not 
one who conceived that he might have in his soul 
all the " essentials " of religion, while still an " alien 
from the commonwealth of Israel." 

All this is worth thinking of by those, who, like 

meanings, and Christian significations ; they are ever show- 
ing a restless, a morbid suspicion and jealousy of the first 
and obvious meaning, and above all, do they most resent and 
recoil and struggle against the simple power of our Lord's 
own words, lest we should receive them too much as little 
children." [British Critic, No. LXV., p. 148.) 



A Bible Christian. 



63 



Mr. Broadsides, have fallen into the error that 
they can adopt the Bible as their sole guide, and 
yet (untrue to that guide,) remain in the position 
of " strangers and foreigners," outside of that glo- 
rious kingdom which the Bible describes as God's 
own creation, — the home and refuge of all who, 
through Christ, look for an inheritance in the heav- 
enly Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER V. 



S. AGATHA'S SUNDAY-SCHOOL. 

IN the foregoing chapter the reader has been 
made acquainted with Father Silas and his con- 
vert — " the Bible Christian." It was well for Mr. 
Broadsides that he became a frequenter of the 
Church, and in the end a worthy member of it, 
under the administration of Father Silas. If he had 
come to S. Agatha's at an earlier day, the issue 
would have been very different ; for it is doubtful, 
at least, whether his tranquillity as an " Abstract " 
would have been seriously disturbed by any aggres- 
sive movement on the part of the former Rector. 
That reverend gentleman belonged to a school of 
religious speculation, of such extraordinary breadth, 
as to have no perceptible boundaries. And in con- 
sequence of the barren theology of the pastor, the 
parish languished, there was no *" voice of joy and 
health " in the sanctuary, the altar mourned in its 
desolation, and it became a popular saying concern- 
ing the pulpit, that though the texts were generally 
plain and luminous, yet all that followed was " dark- 
ness that might be felt." 

But there still remained in the parish some stir- 



5. Agatha's Sunday-school. 65 



rings of spiritual life. There were a few faithful 
souls in that impoverished flock, longing for help, 
and patiently trusting in its unfailing Source. And 
that help came at length ; but it was under a form 
of blessing not contemplated in their prayers, viz., 
the resignation of the Rector. To the surprise of 
all, it was announced that the time had arrived, 
when, as their pastor thought, he must seek relief 
from the severe pressure of parochial duty, by an 
indefinite period of relaxation in foreign lands ; and 
that he hoped another would be able to build suc- 
cessfully on the foundation which he (the Rector,) 
had laid. 

To this project of retirement, the Bishop and the 
parish gave their cordial assent ; with a reserve of 
opinion about the Rector's exhaustion, and the 
depth and quality of the " foundation " he had so 
complacently referred to. 

The vacancy in S. Agatha's was happily filled, 
after much deliberation in the vestry, by the election 
of Father Silas, who was a wise master-builder, hav- 
ing derived his ideas of spiritual architecture from 
the Bible and the Prayer-book, and found his models 
in the courts and palaces of " the City of God." 

When Father Silas had set his house and library 
in order, he sat down to reflect on his position and 
his prospects. He had left a scene of labor where 
he was beloved by many, and honored by all. It 
had been a time of loosening old attachments, and 
breaking up of old associations, mingled with much 



66 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



that makes the heart ache, when farewells are sad- 
dened by thoughts which reach on into the uncer- 
tainties of the future. He had now entered upon 
another field of exertion, where he had some reason 
to fear that toils and hardships awaited him, conflicts 
with minds unused to holy discipline, reproaches 
from the wilful, evil surmises among the uninstruct- 
ed, alarms among the weak, and resistance from 
those who accounted themselves strong. Thoughts 
of such things will come, like shadows across the 
path even of the just and courageous. Father Silas 
knew this, and expected it. But still, trusting in 
God, he went among strangers with a cheerful heart, 
a manly confidence, a genial, loving, and tender 
spirit ; and he found out, in the event, how readily 
a large heart will make its pulsations felt, far and 
wide, and stir up by sympathy a reciprocal beating 
in every neighboring bosom. 

After a few days, Father Silas took a general sur- 
vey of the parish, preliminary to the formation of 
plans for its recovery from a state of sad depres- 
sion. 

There had been at S. Agatha's, all through the 
preceding rectorship, a Sunday-school, as a matter 
of course. It was commonly called " the Sabbath- 
school" and there was a certain appropriateness in 
its Mosaic name, as derived from a dispensation of 
shadows rather than substance. It was not — to 
speak precisely — a school or nursery of young dis- 
ciples in " the faith once delivered to the saints ; " 



»S. Agathcfs Sunday-school. 67 



but rather an institution in which children were 
taught an emasculated Christianity, i.e., the Gospel 
without its positive dogma, and the Church without 
its fundamental principles. 

Father Silas, supposing very naturally that the 
lambs of the flock should fall within his jurisdiction, 
thought proper, when his first Sunday came, to make 
a visit to the place in which were gathered together 
so important and interesting a portion of his parish. 
He found that the exercises of the school were held 
in the basement of the church. The room was 
large, dry, and tolerably well-lighted. In its ar- 
rangements there was nothing peculiar except a spa- 
cious closet, which formed a repository for such 
curiosities and apparatus as were designed for use 
on special occasions. A catalogue of these, subse- 
quently taken by Father Silas ran thus : — " One 
large wooden god, from India ; an earthen god, with 
eleven heads in a row, and twenty-two arms and 
hands ; seven Chinese gods, of various patterns ; a 
model of a Chinese pagoda; a picture-book of 
heathen gods ; a saw from the head of a saw-fish ; 
Turkish pipe, and slippers ; stones from Mount Car- 
mel, Jerusalem, and Mount Sinai ; a stick of cedar 
of Lebanon ; a model of Juggernaut ; two tee-total 
banners; coins, medals, rings, nose-jewels, pieces of 
coral and lava, a tomahawk, a scalping-knife, and 
several similar articles." Many of these things, it is 
proper to say, were turned to account by the super- 
intendent, by way of enforcing his occasional appeals 



68 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



to the sympathies of the children in behalf of Mis- 
sions to the heathen. 

On entering the room Father Silas was very gra- 
ciously received by Mr. Weldon, the superintendent, 
— a short, lively, and rather agreeable person. In a 
neat little speech he assured the Rector that he felt 
peculiarly happy in welcoming " the Minister " to 
the Sabbath-school ; and that this visit would no 
doubt be equally gratifying to his assistants. He 
then went on to express, in fluent phrase, his opin- 
ion, that an occasional visit of this kind would have 
a beneficial influence on the school. " For," said 
Mr. Weldon, " when our labors of love are thus 
recognized and encouraged by a preacher of the 
Word, the confidence of the children in their teach- 
ers will be strengthened ; and our own minds also 
will be more deeply impressed with a sense of the 
vast interests committed to us in the charge of so 
many young souls." This was spoken by Mr. Wel- 
don with an air of admirable self-possession, imply- 
ing a full consciousness that he, and not the Rector^ 
was "master of the situation." 

When Mr. Weldon had finished his speech, he 
proceeded to introduce Father Silas to several of 
the teachers whom the reverend gentleman had not 
before met. All this was done with commendable 
etiquette, and in terms and tones not wanting in 
deference and ceremonial courtesy. But yet, truth 
obliges us to say that there was something wrong 
about it, which Father Silas felt, though he was not 



*S. AgathcCs Sunday-school. 69 



able at the moment to describe or account for it. 
It struck him that the teachers were a little more 
grave and shy than was desirable, and the superin- 
tendent himself would have appeared to better ad- 
vantage, had he exhibited less of condescending dig- 
nity. It was certainly a new experience for Father 
Silas to find his own impulsive and genial soul 
brought into contact with the chilly formalism of 
those who should have met him with far more sym- 
pathy and confidence. And yet, dubious as the case 
seemed, all was not wrong ; for these same frigid 
natures rose at once to a higher temperature, so soon 
as they emerged from the region of Sunday-school 
life, and came into the outer air, and within the pre- 
cincts of God's holy temple, and His holy worship. 
The spell then fell off ; and though it left some tri- 
fling share of its influence behind, yet its power was 
gone, and the deadly charm was at an end. 

Now the secret of all this mysterious restraint lay 
in the fact, that the government of the school was 
regarded as one thing, and the government of the 
church quite another. The parish was viewed as a 
sort of duplex institution, — a combination of two 
elements, — the church and the school. While it 
was conceded that Father Silas was chief officer in 
the one, Mr. Weldon was held to be supreme in the 
other. And hence sprang up a troublesome spirit 
of jealousy in the school, lest some encroachment 
should be made by the Rector on rights which 
were scrupulously guarded by Mr. Weldon and his 



70 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



associates. This jealousy seldom slumbered ; for 
there was an instinctive feeling that a clergyman 
must, in the nature of things, be always ambitious 
of power, and that this propensity would be very 
apt to lead him into interference with the affairs of 
the Sunday-school. This will reveal at once the 
grounds of the cautious reception which was given 
to the Rector by Weldon and his aids. The super- 
intendent had been shrewd enough to fortify his 
ozvn position, in his carefully worded address to 
Father Silas ; and what the teachers had not suffi- 
cient tact to express in words, was amply supplied 
by the coolness and reserve of their behaviour. 

Father Silas, then, in short, was simply the pastor 
of the grown-up people, and of such of the older 
children as had finished their religious education 
under Mr. Weldon. On this theory, the Rector 
was not the authoritative head of the parish, not 
the Divinely-commissioned instructor and governor 
of all the flock. And, when the real position of 
things now dawned on the mind of Father Silas, he 
began to feel like a stranger away from home, or 
like a missionary just landed on a foreign shore ; or, 
more literally, like a priest who had somehow wan- 
dered within the lines of another man's jurisdiction, 
and was welcome only to the extent of his ^ood be- 
haviour and submissiveness. 

On closing the school, Mr. Weldon gave to Father 
Silas a large printed paper containing the " Consti- 
tution and Rules " of the school, intimating to him 



S. Agatha's Sunday-school. 71 



that it would be found useful as an exhibition of the 
system pursued, and also as a guide in any future 
intercourse which the Rector might feel inclined to 
have with the school. It was somewhat remarka- 
ble that in this document, which filled two columns 
of a folio sheet, there was not to be seen an allu- 
sion to any such person as the Rector, Minister, or 
Pastor.* Father Silas glanced at the paper, caught 
its drift, and folded it up for further reflection. The 
next day he amused himself by reading it aloud to 
assure himself that he was awake, and then laid it 
away among his ecclesiastical curiosities. This done, 
he resolved to take the school, including Wei don 
and his corps of teachers, under his own direct con- 
trol and supervision,- — quietly, if he could, or un- 
quietly, if he must. 

*This is not fiction. A printed copy of such a P. E. S.-S. 
paper is in the possession of the writer. 



CHAPTER VI. 



S. AGATHA'S SUNDAY-SCHOOL. — CONTINUED. 

TO qualify himself better for his undertaking ? 
the Rector took the best measures he could 
for obtaining a perfect understanding of the nature, 
the practical working, and the real results, of this 
fair-looking Sunday-school system. But before a 
week had gone its round, a circumstance occurred 
which threw such a flood of light on the mind of the 
Rector, as saved him both time and trouble in the 
investigation before him. 

It had been customary for some years past to 
hold a " teachers' meeting " every week, at the 
house of Mr. Weldon. The object of these meet- 
ings was understood to be the interchange and com- 
parison of religious opinions, with the hope of pro- 
moting harmony of feeling among the teachers, and 
uniformity of instruction in the exercises of the 
school. There was nothing very novel or objection- 
able in such meetings ; and Father Silas was dis- 
posed to encourage them, because, under proper 
regulation, they might have a beneficial effect, not 
only in the school, but also on the Christian habits 
and sympathies of the teachers themselves. 



S. Agatha's Sunday-school. — Continued. 73 

Accordingly, Father Silas took occasion to attend 
one of these meetings ; at which he found Mr. Wel- 
don presiding. The worthy superintendent was en- 
gaged at the moment in expounding, with the help 
of a popular sectarian Commentary, the portion of 
Scripture appointed as one of the school-lessons for 
the next Sunday. The Rector was politely offered 
a seat by the side of the superintendent, who trusted, 
as he said, that the exercises would not prove un- 
interesting or unsatisfactory to his visitor. Now, in 
ordinary cases, the place of dignity and authority 
would, of course, have been offered to the clergy- 
man, on the ground both of right and courtesy. 
But Mr. Weldon had some private reasons for dis- 
pensing with the general rule. It was his wish (as 
he persuaded himself,) to give the Rector a view of 
the careful mode in which the teachers were trained 
for their work ; and this would require, of course, 
that their chief should not leave his post. The 
case, therefore, seemed to Mr. Weldon clear enough 
to shield him from blame, should any one charge 
him with incivility to the Rector. 

Father Silas very wisely made no remark on tak- 
ing the place assigned him ; and was favored by 
Mr. Weldon with a New Testament, in order that 
he might the more readily apprehend the force of 
the suggestions which so many minds would offer 
in elucidation of the sacred text. With admirable 
patience he endured all that came to his ears for the 
first fifteen or twenty minutes. It was, of course, 
4 



74 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



to be expected that there would be a great diversity 
among the remarks which every section of the lesson 
would call forth ; and it was well, — all things con- 
sidered, — that the crude opinions thus elicited from 
the teachers were afterwards to be melted down in 
the crucible of Weldon's brain, and the amount of 
gold and dross determined by reference to the afore- 
said Commentary. But just as Father Silas's eye- 
lids were beginning to droop with weariness, the 
monotony of the exercises was broken by one of 
those sharp conflicts of opinion which the Rector had 
already been looking for. Mr. Weldon and one of 
the teachers, a Mr. Ashford, had been drawn into 
a very threatening and noisy wrangle about the 
meaning of a passage of Scripture occurring in the 
lesson under review. The words were these : — 
" Work out your own salvation, with fear and 
trembling." [Phil. ii. 12.) The superintendent hav- 
ing given the usual interpretation, was met by a 
stout denial on the part of Mr. Ashford, who as- 
serted that Weldon was under a sad misapprehen- 
sion of the Apostle's meaning. Mr. Weldon quietly 
replied that he had never before heard the current 
sense of the text disputed ; and Ashford answered, 
that " the current sense " might be wrong notwith- 
standing. 

" I think, then, you would oblige us all," said 
Weldon, " by stating what is your own impression 
as to the meaning of the passage." 

To this Mr. Ashford replied rather bluntly, " I 



S. Agatha's Sunday-schooL — Continued. 75 



don't wish to be disobliging; but I am doubtful 
whether the stating of my opinion would be of any 
use." 

" Why do you think so ? " asked Weldon. 
" Because I suppose that your own mind is made 
up." 

" I have only intimated what is the prevailing 
interpretation of the passage." 

" And I have only intimated that it might be 
wrong," said Ashford. 

" Well, Sir, be that as it may, I see no reason why 
you should decline to give us your view of the mat- 
ter. You will certainly enjoy the common privi- 
lege of being respectfully heard." 

" I will do so on one condition," rejoined Mr. 
Ashford. " If I am right, my judgment of the 
Apostle's meaning must not be rejected, even though 
I should chance to be the entire minority. I think 
that before you cast my judgment aside, you are 
bound to prove that it is wrong'' 

" Very well," said Weldon, " now please go on." 

Ashford replied, " As you seem to be rather im- 
portunate, and I don't want to be too unyielding, I 
will state my views, though I can easily foresee how 
they will be received." 

" Never mind that," answered Mr. Weldon ; and 
several of the teachers cried out, " Go on, go on." 

" My impression, then," began Ashford, " is this, — . 
that by the words, ' work out,' the Apostle meant 
6 cast forth] 6 reject] 'get rid of; 9 as if he had said, 



y6 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



1 Purge out your own salvation, with fear and trem- 
bling.' This is my opinion, Sir ; and I think it 
makes the passage as clear as daylight." 

This was said by Mr. Ashford with a firm voice 
and a good deal of emphasis, to the astonishment of 
every one, especially Weldon, w T ho asked the speaker 
whether his words had been seriously and thought- 
fully considered. 

" Undoubtedly," answered that gentleman. 

" But surely you don't mean to say that S. Paul 
would require us to do so impious a thing," contin- 
ued Mr. Weldon. 

" It is not impious, Sir, but a primary Christian 
duty." 

" Do you mean to affirm that it is not an impious 
thing to reject or get rid of the salvation of our 
souls?" 

" Ah ! my dear Weldon," said Ashford, " there's 
your mistake. As I said before, you really don't 
understand the Apostle, nor the exact force and 
bearing of those words, 'your own salvation? " 

" How so ? " cried out Weldon. 

" I take it, Sir, that what is here meant by a 
man's ' own salvation,' is his own righteousness, his 
filthy rags, his imaginary merits, as contrasted with 
God's method or plan of salvation ; and therefore, 
the sooner a man gets rid of his own way of salva- 
tion, and makes room in his heart for the Gospel, 
the better will it be for him both in this world and 
the next." 



Agatha's Sunday-school. — Continued. 77 

Here it must be confessed that Mr. Weldon was 
a little confused, and remained silent for some mo- 
ments. Ashford meantime looked alternately at 
him and the teachers, with the air of one who has 
achieved a stupendous victory. 

" I see now," said the superintendent on recover- 
ing himself, " I see now the ridiculous whim which 
you have undertaken to defend." 

" Not so fast, brother Weldon," said Ashford ; " I 
have not quite done with this matter yet. I want 
you to tell me frankly whether my interpretation is, 
or is not, good, sound, Bible doctrine ? " 

" Well, granting that it is, it does not follow that 
the Apostle says any such thing in this particular 
text." 

" Just so, if your view is the right one. But don't 
you see that you are begging the whole question, 
without a single word of argument ? For my own 
part, I should like to know what can be clearer than 
the view I have given ? Is it not almost exactly like 
what the Aposfrle says in another place : — Purge 
out the old leaven of malice and wickedness ' ? and 
do I not sustain myself by thus comparing one text 
with another ? " 

" How can you, Mr. Ashford, or anybody else, 
defend a mere novel and fantastic notion in opposi- 
tion to the judgment of the ablest divines and most 
learned commentators, and in downright contempt 
of the views of our pious Reformers ? " 

" I don't see " rejoined Ashford, " why my opin- 



78 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



ions are not as good as the opinions of other people. 
If they have given their views, why -may I not give 
mine ? I have the Bible, thank God, without note 
or comment. From this source I must draw my 
religion on my own responsibility ; and what I think 
is written in the Bible, that I am bound to teach 
my class." 

" But," said Mr. Weldon, " how do you know that 
you read the Bible rightly ? You can't claim to be 
infallible." 

" I know it ; and neither can you" retorted Ash- 
ford. 

" But, Sir, I seek relief for my fallibility by the 
diligent study of commentators." 

" That's all very well," said the teacher; "but 
you know as well as I do that there are plenty 
of commentators who advocate all sorts of false 
doctrine." 

Weldon tried to evade this thrust by saying, " I 
am really sorry, very sorry, Mr. Ashford, that the 
peace of our meeting should be thus disturbed by 
questions and strifes of words." 

" So am I," said the indomitable teacher, " and I 
am all the more sorry when I know that the strife 
springs entirely from your dislike of my interpreta- 
tion." 

" I dislike it," answered Weldon, " because it is 
utterly wrong" 

" But that is the very point which you have not 
yet proved. You have brought no evidence against 



S. Agatha's Sunday-school. — Continued. 79 

me but your own opinion, and a reference to the 
opinions of some other men." 

" I contend that you wrest the Apostle's words 
from their natural meaning," said Mr. Weldon. 

" That may be your impression ; but it is not 
mineT 

" I say you are wrong, Sir," said Weldon, growing 
warm ; " and I can prove it," 

" And I say that I am right," replied Ashford ; 
" and I challenge you to make out the contrary." 

" The best and most learned of our modern writ- 
ers are against you," said the one 

" But, pray tell me," said the other, " who shall 
answer for those modern writers ? " 

At this point the controversy came to a sudden 
halt, as neither of the parties seemed able to find his 
way out of the fog. Father Silas, who all along 
had been struggling to conceal his mirth, then rose 
up, and said, with a smile : " Though this debate 
has been a rather informal one, and has ended with- 
out gain or glory to either of the combatants, yet it 
will help me very much in finding out, (among other 
things,) what sort of milk you are here accustomed 
to use every Sunday, in feeding the babes of Christ. 
I must also take leave to say, that all through the 
debate, it has been taken for granted that S. Paul 
was familiar with the English language, and that he 
wrote to the Philippians an English letter containing 
the words, ' work out your own salvation/ Now, 
if the debaters had only borne in mind that the 



8o 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Apostle Paul was neither an Englishman nor an 
American, and that his letter was written in Greek, 
there would have been no dispute at all ; for a ref- 
erence to the original would be. enough to settle the 
matter at once. 

" Let me also have your attention while I say a 
few words more, I am very glad that our friend, the 
teacher, took good care to keep within the lines of 
sound doctrine, in his fanciful treatment of four or 
five English words. Too often, in contests of this 
kind, there is at least a side-long attack, if not a 
direct one, on some point of the Christian Faith, or 
on some fundamental Church principle. Private 
judgment is a good thing when soberly exercised ; 
but it is very apt to run into private nonsense, pri- 
vate conceit, and an unholy trifling with the most 
sacred things. We may see proofs of this all around 
us. There is not a single false doctrine, heresy, 
or crazy perversion of God's word, which has not 
sprung from an abuse of the Bible by private specu- 
lation about its meaning. Think of this ; and then 
think how much better it would be for every reader 
of the Bible, if he could say, with one of the most 
learned of the ancient Fathers, 6 1 thank God that 
/ am not ignorant of my own ignorance? If such a 
man as Origen could say this, who among us will be 
rash enough to idolize his own private notions or 
opinions ?* I value my private judgment as much 

* S. T. Coleridge, speaking of private judgment, says that 
he " condemns only the pretended right of every Individual, 



»S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Continued. 8 1 

as you value yours. But what is the use of that 
judgment if God has left us (as many believe) with- 
out a Guide to lead us safely through that wild 
chaos of human opinions with which the world is 
now distracted ? Happily, God has not so left us ; 
but, with infinite wisdom and love, has founded a 
Church, in which ' the Faith once delivered ' to it, 
was to be forever preserved inviolate, and to be thus 
taught to every Christian man, woman, and child, 
from the Apostles' days downward, till the end of 
the world. To this Church, and to no other re- 
ligious body whatever \ did the Holy Ghost give the 
power and the right to be known as ' the pillar and 
ground of the Truth.' t The use, then, that I have 
made of my private judgment, has been, ist, to find 
with certainty this very Church ; and 2d, to accept 
it as my Divinely-appointed Teacher. I therefore 
confide in the Church, just as a child confides in 

competent and incompetent, to interpret Scripture in a 
sense of his own, in opposition to the judgment of the 
Church, without knowledge of the Originals or of the Lan- 
guages, the History, Customs, Opinions and Controversies of 
the Age and Country in which they were written ; and where 
the Interpreter judges in ignorance or in contempt of unin- 
terrupted Tradition, the unanimous consent of Fathers and 
Councils, and the universal Faith of the Church in all ages. 
It is not the attempt to form a judgment, which is here called 
in question ; but the grounds, or rather the no-grounds, on 
which the Judgment is formed and relied on, — the self-willed 
and separative (schismatic^) Setting-up (hceresis.) " (Aids to 
Reflection, p. 331.) 

4* 



82 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



his wise and loving mother. She hands me the 
Bible as her text-book, tells me precisely what it 
means, explains to me its mysteries ; and thus, by 
gentle degrees, brings my whole mind into har- 
mony with its wonderful truths and facts. 

" Let me advise you to think seriously of these 
hints when you go to your homes. I thank you 
for your patient listening, and hope that, by the 
Divine blessing, the events of this evening may be 
a help and a warning to you, in teaching the children 
of God's Church, c what things they ought to believe 
and to do.' " 

The meeting closed with a hymn and a collect ; 
and w T hen all parties reached their homes they had 
something to reflect upon. Possibly their evening 
slumbers would have been less tranquil had they 
known what thoughts had found place in their Rec- 
tor's mind. Before midnight, Father Silas had 
sketched a paper informing the Wardens and Vestry 
that, unless the entire control of instruction in the 
Sunday-school were yielded to him, in virtue of 
his office, there would be an immediate vacancy in 
the Rectorship. But before sending this paper, he 
concluded first to try the issue of private remon- 
strance and instruction. 

'This was the resolve of one who knew the full 
import of his sacred vows, and the peril of unfaith- 
fulness in guarding the flock w T hich he w 7 as sent to 
protect. But what if the sheep will not obey the 
shepherd's voice ? It had not taken long for Father 



S. Agathrfs Sunday-school.— Continued. 83 



Silas to find out that S. Agatha's was one of those 
parishes where the vacant places of the faithful de- 
parted had been filled by others not inheriting their 
valorous devotion. The younger element thus let 
in, was merely an accession of showy and vapory 
sentiment, with no deeply rooted faith, no instinc- 
tive reverence, no Churchly aspirations, but only that 
thin and starveling religion, under which the youth 
of the parish had graduated in the barren region of 
the Sunday-school. Could a Christian priest see 
this, sanction it, and conform his teaching to it, with- 
out surrendering both his Creed and his conscience ? 

The next movement of Father Silas may perhaps 
surprise the reader. His quiet discernment of char- 
acter had enabled him to take an accurate meas- 
urement of Mr. Weldon, and to inspire him with a 
hope of making that gentleman his most efficient co- 
adjutor in the reformation of the Sunday-school. 
While the Rector was quite aware of the slips and 
errors to which any impulsive man is liable, yet he 
recognized under W eldon's busy and earnest mode 
of action, such elements of conscientiouness, fidelity, 
and moral straightforwardness, as needed only to be 
moulded on a better model, to produce a far nobler 
specimen of renovated manhood than was, as yet, 
visible in this honest-minded but ill-trained princi- 
pal of a Church school. It was only necessary for 
Father Silas to be reasonably confident of this, to 
start in his own far-seeing mind a line of conduct, 
having for its end the gaining for Mr. Weldon a far 



84 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



higher sphere of spiritual development than that gen- 
tleman had as yet attained. It was evident that the 
chief teacher needed again to be taught " which be 
the first principles" of the doctrine of Christ ; and 
consequently, that the children were " spending 
their strength for nought," while they were under 
instructors disqualified to give form and stability to 
their faith. Weldon's theology was not of a Church- 
ly sort; but still, he was" well-disposed, sincere in 
his way, and by natural constitution destined for ac- 
tivity. But this activity (as we have seen,) had no 
fixed line on which to act nobly, energetically, and 
consistently. It was a power driving onward, side- 
ward, to the right hand and the left, with uncertain 
and ever-shifting mutability, all the time purposing 
well, but incapable of centering all purposes on a 
clearly-defined idea either of the Christian Church or 
of the Christian Faith. 

Father Silas's parish work had now taken the form 
of an experiment \ the issue of which he was resolved 
to see, and thus learn whether his relation to S. 
Agatha's was that of its Rector, or only its hired 
servant. 

It came to his ears one day, much to his surprise, 
that Mr. Ashford's encounter with the superintend- 
ent had been premeditated, and had a very curious 
origin and purpose. There had been for some time, 
in the minds of the teachers, a growing dislike of 
some of Mr. Weldon's methods, his arbitraiy rule, 
and the summary way in which he disposed of opin- 



S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Continued. 85 



ions not coinciding with his own. Ash ford shared 
in these feelings, and had reasons of his own for 
distrusting Mr. Weldon's theological bias. Several 
books on Church history and doctrine had recently 
caught his (Ashford's) attention, and were already 
working a most unexpected revolution of his relig- 
ious ideas. He read these books with avidity, and 
had discernment and candor enough not only to see 
his errors, but to shake them off without regret. He 
ventured also to reveal to some of his fellow-teach- 
ers the change which was progressing in his own 
mind, and which (as he thought,) was of too serious 
import to be confined entirely to himself. He was 
reluctant, however, to offer any hints or suggestions 
to the superintendent ; because there seemed to be 
little hope of gaining access to Weldon's mind by 
any ordinary method of approach, The great ob- 
stacle in Mr. Ashford's way was Weldon's extreme 
sensitiveness on the right of private judgment on all 
religious questions. Ashford knew this ; and he 
knew also that so long as this foible held its place, 
the advancement of the school to a higher grade 
would be quite impracticable ; and, being a man of 
considerable wit, tact, and fluency of speech, he de- 
vised a scheme for setting on foot a playful but ef- 
ficient contest with the superintendent, as the only 
available mode by which Weldon could be made 
conscious of the absurdity and mischievous nature 
of his pet notion. How this project was carried out, 
has been already related ; and though, at the time, 



86 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



the teachers saw nothing further than a sportive at- 
tack on Mr. Weidon, yet its far deeper significance 
began to flash upon their minds under the forcible 
words of Father Silas which immediately followed. 

When the Rector found that Ashford had thus 
been the means of kindling a light in the parish 
which was not likely to be soon put out, he took 
courage, and thanked God for the consolation. The 
assurance that he had in the school even one earnest 
friend, was not only a relief to him, but an encourage- 
ment also to those who were daily praying that God 
would revive His work in the parish, and restore 
what had been " decayed by the carnal will and frail- 
ness of man." Father Silas took occasion also to 
apologize to Mr. Ashford, for reminding him (in his 
speech ) that S. Paul did not write the English words 
in dispute. Of course, Ashford knew this quite 
well, while he w r as giving Weidon a specimen lesson 
on the possibilities of private judgment. 

There is some danger of checking a religious 
movement by too great precipitation or haste in 
directing it. Father Silas, though somewhat elated, 
was not forgetful of this, but allowed two or three 
weeks to pass without much change in his parish 
work ; thus giving time for the new leaven to do its 
office silently, both in the school and the parish. 
All this time Mr. Weldon's mind was in a very dis- 
turbed condition. His defeat by Ashford could not 
easily be forgotten. But, aside from this, he had 
unexpectedly been made conscious that there must 



vS. Agathcts Sunday-sckooL— Continued, 87 



be somewhere a higher test of truth than any man's 
own personal judgment. Ashford's argument had 
shown this ; and Father Silas had pointed out 
where that test would be found, viz., in the Church 
of the living God. This was almost a new thought 
to Weldon, though he had been for many years " a 
member incorporate " of that Church, had repeated 
her Creed hundreds of times, knelt at her altars, and 
become a chief teacher of her children ! In con- 
trast with this, Mr. Ashford had already imbibed 
enough of Church doctrine to understand the per- 
plexity of the superintendent, and to give him some 
sensible advice. For the first time in his life, Mr. 
Weldon began to distrust himself, and to suspect 
that he had been trying to walk in the Church's 
" heavenly ways," with sectarian scales on his eyes. 
Very naturally he had failed to see what stress the 
Prayer-book lays on objective truths ; how it exalts 
the wisdom of God, and contemns the pride of man ; 
and how it sets forth the one unchangeable Faith, 
before which all human souls must bow, and even 
the devils tremble. Weldon was thus very gradu- 
ally coming to abetter understanding of himself, and 
of the untenableness of his notions about Christian 
education. " A tree is known by its fruits ; " and 
Father Silas saw those fruits in a generation of 
young people whose training had not made them 
valiant soldiers in the Church militant, but fitted 
them rather for recruits in " the armies of the aliens." 
In spite of the dazzling outward aspect of the school, 



88 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



and the devotion of its teachers, it was apparent 
that the memories of the children had been exercised 
at the expense of their hearts and minds. Large 
portions of the Gospels and 3, Paul's Epistles, 
with numerous hymns, gleanings from Old Testa- 
ment narratives, and parables from the New, had 
taxed the memories, and worried the mothers, of 
these poor lambs of Christ, while many of them 
knew only by rote the Catechism which the Church 
had provided for every child's instruction. To 
them, the Church in which they were baptized was 
simply one of the " Protestant denominations," hav- 
ing a set form of worship, clothing its clergy in 
white or black robes, and visited occasionally by 
a venerable old Minister called " Bishop," who 
wore lawn sleeves, and laid his hands on people's 
heads to confirm them. The very solemn truth that 
they themselves were " members of Christ," and 
the " children of God," had hardly entered their 
thoughts ; but they had been taught to look for- 
ward to a time when, by some direct visitation of 
the Holy Spirit, they might become such, and thus 
be ranked among " Church members." 

This sort of defective teaching was not adopted 
simply in view of the youthfulness of the pupils ; 
for they were as capable of learning the truth as of 
being led astray into error. The fault was in the 
lax and time-serving system of the school. It was 
not the aim of that system to mould the youth of 
the parish into the shape of firm-hearted Church- 



I 



S. Agatha's Sunday-school — Continued. 89 

men. Such teaching was carefully avoided, on the 
ground that it would result in the emptying of half 
the pews, and in giving offense to many outsiders who 
(as the phrase is,) were " favorably inclined toward 
the Church." And thus, numbers, popularity, and 
money, were put into the balance with truth and 
heaven, and were thought weighty enough to bear 
down the scale. It did not occur to any one that 
this was not unlike the selling of Christ for so many 
pieces of silver. 

Mr. Ashford had to struggle for some time before 
he could fairly set Mr. Weldon's face Zionward. 
But he finally succeeded, greatly to the satisfaction 
of himself and Father Silas. In several talks at the 
parsonage, Weldon had acquitted himself well ; and 
the hopes of the Rector were confirmed, although it 
was yet uncertain how far Weldon's stability would 
bear the strain of a searching test. Father Silas 
also found that there was more or less of Churchly 
thought quietly spreading through the parish, in 
consequence of his clear and positive teaching, and 
as a re-action from the listless torpor of former years. 



CHAPTER VII. 



S. AGATHA'S SUNDAY-SCHOOL— CONCLUDED. 

AT length, the time arrived when the Rector 
could safely venture to state the defects of 
the school, and to make it a more truthful and safe 
auxiliary to his own pastoral work. A movement 
of this kind being of importance to the whole 
parish, Father Silas requested the teachers, with 
Weldon, and the leading members of the congrega- 
tion, to meet him in the school-room on an ap- 
pointed evening, A short service was held, and the 
Rector then unburdened his mind in an address, of 
which only some sketches can here be given. Speak- 
ing more especially to Weldon and the teachers, 
he said ; " My dear friends, I have called you to- 
gether this evening, with the view of inviting your 
co-operation in an effort to bring our Sunday-school 
into a more perfect accord with the teaching of the 
Church. I am about to speak, not so much of mis- 
takes on your part, as of radical defects in the theory 
and practice of the school itself. I have reason, in- 
deed, to thank you for your fidelity in meeting the 
duties you had undertaken to perform. No com- 
plaints have been heard, and no one can doubt your 



S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Concluded. 91 

affectionate concern for the welfare of those under 
your training. I am obliged, however, to speak 
otherwise of the system on which you have been act- 
ing. I consider it so faulty in principle, and imper- 
fect in its details, so out of sympathy with the 
Church which it should serve, so inefficient in the 
assertion and defense of ' our most holy faith,' that 
it neither has, nor ever can have, any share of my 
confidence. On the contrary, I regard it as nothing 
less than a formidable engine to batter down the 
walls which it is my office to build up. It is an in- 
stitution which, so long as its power is thus misap- 
plied, will painfully embarrass me in a line of duty 
which I have promised and vowed to fulfil. For, 
while I, in the pulpit and elsewhere, am striving to 
bring my flock 6 in the unity of the faith, and of the 
knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, 
unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ,' the teachers of this school are laboring, (no 
doubt, unintentionally,) to counteract all my en- 
deavors ; and are really leaving the children of the 
Church exposed to the danger of being 6 tossed to 
and fro, and carried about with every wind of doc- 
trine.' What has been the aim of this school, but 
to teach a vague and popular religion, trimmed down 
to suit the times, — a Gospel stripped of its ancient 
glory ; a Gospel at war with the Gospel-Church ; 
and the Creed so interpreted that even heresy and 
schism may safely subscribe it ? I have not a doubt 
that much less mischief would be done by adopting 



92 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



an avowedly sectarian course of teaching ; for, then, 
every honest and sensible Churchman would know 
what to expect, and would arm himself with the 
shield of faith, and promptly withdraw his children 
from the school as from a scene of contamination. 
In plain words, this school assumes to be what it 
really is not, — a faithful nursery of baptized chil- 
dren, on whose brows was traced the sign of their 
Saviour's cross. I say this deliberately, and can 
confirm what I say by facts which it is painful even 
to think of. The youth of the Church are here 
growing up in ignorance of their own spiritual 
Mother, and of their near and most dear relation to 
her. The natural issue of this is disaffection, and 
the roving of many into other folds. You all know, 
or ought to know, that a child brought up under 
such a system can never enjoy ' the confidence of a 
certain faith,' till he finds out and shakes off the 
errors grafted on his soul in his youthful years. 
Surely the very thought of this should stir the spirit 
of any one who, meaning well, has only this as the 
fruit of his labor. I say this, in order to show you 
distinctly the errors of the past, and to put you on 
your guard against similar failures in the future. 
While I lament those errors, I have no reason to 
distrust the conscientiousness of any one here pres- 
ent. You have not been unmindful that your posi- 
tion was one of great responsibility. It is my desire 
to set before you that responsibility in its true light, 
and also to share it with you ; so that, by God's 



S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Concluded. 93 

help, Ave may never be found guilty of knowingly 
placing in the mind of any one child for whom 
Christ died, a foundation of false doctrine, as a basis 
on which religious uncertainty, folly, or indifference, 
may hereafter be built." 

Here Father Silas paused for a moment ; and one 
of the teachers, who was a young doctor, said, — " If 
the ailments of the school are, as you believe, 
organic and constitutional, I should like to know 
how you propose to cure them." 

" That is what I was about to tell you," replied 
Father Silas, " and I thank you for helping me to 
an illustration. Everybody knows that for the suc- 
cessful treatment of the maladies to which all men 
are subject, the physician must have some knowledge 
of the structure of the human body, and of the offices, 
and relations, and liabilities to derangement, of its 
several parts or members. It is just so in dealing 
with the infirmities of a religious or moral institu- 
tion. Suppose then we are dealing with so frail a 
thing as a Sunday-school sometimes is, and wish to 
see it working with all the vigor of perfect health. 
We must, first of all, have in our minds a correct 
ideal of what such a school is, or ought to be ; and 
then try to bring it into conformity with that ideal. 
I say, then, that a parish Sunday-school should be 
nothing less than a component part (though a very 
small one) of ' the body of Christ.' And 6 the body 
of Christ ' is that great and wonderful organic struc- 
ture which is called in the Creed, the ' one, holy, 



94 Episodes hi Clerical and Parish Life. 

Catholic and Apostolic Church.' Of this Church, 
you and I became members by our baptism ; and as 
God has constituted that Church the. great Instruc- 
tor of the whole human race, we are bound by our 
baptism to receive, and ' earnestly contend for,' the 
Faith which she teaches, and thus prepare ourselves 
and others to lead a ( godly, righteous, and sober 
life.' 

" One of the first things, therefore, that every 
baptized child should learn, is, that he belongs, not 
to some religious sect or denomination, but to that 
very organization, kingdom, or Church, which was 
founded by our Lord and His Apostles ; and which, 
' through the ages all along ' has been the central 
source of spiritual life, moral progress, and enlight- 
ened civilization, to all the nations of the earth. I 
lay stress upon this, because I am very certain that 
the teaching of this school has hitherto been that of 
a mere Episcopal sect, while no such sect is known or 
thought of as possible in the Church of Christ. Un- 
less, then, a teacher can distinctly apprehend the 
difference between the one Church which the Son 
of God Himself founded, and the religious sects, 
which are of merely human creation, he cannot ex- 
plain to any child what was done for him in bap- 
tism, nor will he be able to teach him, except by 
rote, * all other things which a Christian ought to 
know and believe to his soul's health.' The prevail- 
ing folly of our times is that of building up a showy 
and fragile form of Christian life, on a basis as loose 



S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Concluded. 95 

and insecure as itself; although our Lord has told 
us plainly what the foolish man may expect, who 
builds his house on the sand. 

" There is one other point which, I am sorry to 
say, the system pursued in this school obliges me to 
state with some decision. It is this, viz., that the 
Rector of a parish is, by the very nature of his office, 
responsible for the spiritual oversight and instruction 
of every member of his flock, whether old or young. 
In regard to the religious education of children, the 
Church recognizes three parties as teachers, 1st, the 
Parents ; 2d the Sponsors ; and 3rd the spiritual 
Pastor, as the chief teacher, guide, and guardian of 
his whole flock. When all these parties are faith- 
ful to their duty, the children of a parish will be its 
strength and glory. Your sons will c grow up as 
the young plants,' and your daughters will be ' as 
the polished corners of the temple.' If the idea of 
a Sunday-school ever entered the mind of the 
Church, it could only be that of a meeting together 
of parents, sponsors, and children, for the more per- 
fect discharge of their holy work, and for mutual 
counsel, help, and sympathy. The modern Sunday- 
school is quite another thing. It has gradually en- 
croached on the duties and rights of the clergy, and 
very generally become an unauthorized substitute 
for parental and sponsorial teaching. My desire, 
then, is, to restore the complete and admirable sys- 
tem, which the Church long ago prescribed, and 
under which a far nobler race of Christians and 



g6 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Churchmen may be formed, than we can hope for 
so long as that system is ignored. Let the Sunday- 
school be simply a help in doing a good work ; and 
not a substitute for parents, sponsors, and Rectors. 
I make the proposal to you, with a strong hope and 
trust that it will meet your approval, and that you 
will gladly co-operate with me in carrying it into 
effect." 

Father Silas was somew T hat surprised on rinding 
that no visible or audible signs of dissatisfaction 
followed his speech. There was for some time a 
deep silence, and an appearance of thoughtfulness 
among all present, except in the case of a female 
teacher who rose- abruptly and left the room. It 
was for Mr. Weldon to break the silence ; and this 
he did by saying, that, while he felt grateful to the 
Rector for so frank an expression of his opinions, he 
still thought that the school had merits enough to 
atone for a good many defects. If, however, a new 
order of things was desirable, he would be quite 
willing to take a subordinate part in the experiment, 
leaving to the Rector all responsibility for the issue. 
This was followed by a general stir among the teach- 
ers, who, laying their heads together, made sundry 
criticisms on Weldon and Father Silas. The begin- 
nings of strife, however, were checked by Mr. Ash- 
ford, whose coolness and geniality of temper soon 
brought the malcontents to terms, and to an adop- 
tion of the pacific course marked out by Weldon. 

In accepting the services of the teachers, Father 



S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Concluded. 97 

Silas had in view chiefly the familiarity they pos- 
sessed with the routine of teaching, and their 
knowledge of the capacities, temperaments, and 
moral character of the several children. But he 
reserved to himself the right of releasing from 
duty any incompetent or disloyal teacher, and of 
receiving others on whose faithfulness he could rely. 

Under a sense of liberty as grateful as it was 
novel, the Rector now began his work of restoration 
in the school, and of remoulding the sentiment of 
the parish. It will not be practicable here to make 
record of all his movements ; but their Churchly 
direction and leading traits may be shown in a brief 
outline. 

Father Silas followed up his stirring instructions 
to parents, by equally strong efforts to revive, or 
rather create, in the minds of God-fathers and God- 
mothers, a sense of the responsibility they had as- 
sumed at the font, where this most serious warning 
was given them : — " Ye must remember, that it is 
your parts and duties to see that this Infant be 
taught, so soon as he shall be able to learn, what a 
solemn vow, promise, and profession he hath here 
made by you" etc. At the time when these words 
were written, parental and sponsorial duty was made 
primary and obligatory, while they are now too 
often surrendered to the uncertain and possibly 
heretical teaching of a Sunday-school. On this 
home teaching of children, to fit them for public 
Catechising, Father Silas insisted with great earnest- 
5 



98 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



ness, because it is the Church's method, whereby 
millions of children have been virtuously brought 
up to lead such a Christian life as is represented in 
their Baptism. 

The Rector also opposed most strenuously that 
fatal error of the Sunday-school, — the substituting 
of its own brief and imperfect service for the public 
worship of God in His holy temple. " it is the 
right, the privilege, and the duty, of every baptized 
child," said Father Silas, " to engage with heart 
and voice, (so soon as he is able,) in the Church's 
authorized offering of prayer and praise ; and no 
human institution can be suffered to interfere with 
this branch of a child's spiritual culture. In the 
Catechism, every child is taught to say : ' I desire 

my Lord God to send His grace unto 

me, and to all people, that we may worship Him, 
serve Him, and obey Him, as we ought to do? This 
was the teaching of God's Church, long before Sun- 
day-schools were invented. In those days, parents 
and children knelt together in the presence of their 
God and Saviour ; and each of them could honestly 
say : — 6 Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy 
house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.' 
But in these days, as we approach the house of God, 
we are too often met by a scattering crowd of parish 
children, in full retreat from the church, thought- 
less, noisy, and irreverent in their behaviour, un- 
trained in the Church's worship, and hastening home 
to spend, as they choose, those sacred hours, which 



S. Agatha's Sunday-school. — Concluded. 99 

the Sunday-school has virtually permitted them not 
to keep holy." 

As all baptized children are entitled to Confirma- 
tion and the Holy Communion, though not yet 
actual recipients " by reason of their tender age," 
Father Silas regarded every child as in preparation 
for " the laying on of hands," and then for the Sacra- 
ment of the altar. Accordingly, he laid out a 
progressive line of Churchly instruction, under which 
the formation of holy principles and habits in view 
of a future reception of sacramental grace, was kept 
distinctly before the minds of all the children. On 
this plan, the danger was avoided of "getting up," 
on short notice, a class of youthful " candidates for 
Confirmation," whose interest in the Church and 
their own souls is apt to vanish away like a fleecy 
cloud or a transient dream. 

Father Silas devoted one evening of each week to 
the instruction of Weldon and his corps of teachers. 
With the Collects, Epistles, and Gospels, they had 
already that general acquaintance which is readily 
attained even by intelligent sectarians. But, in ad- 
dition to this, the Rector gradually unfolded to them 
the inner spirit of the Creed they professed, the true 
nature and origin of the Catholic Church, its Apos- 
tolic Order, Sacraments, ritual, and holy-days and 
seasons, thereby rendering them safe and valuable 
aids in his work amxmg the young. A similar course 
of instruction was given by the Rector to a class 
of young people, as supplementary to the monthly 



100 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



catechising of the younger children before the con- 
gregation. 

Children remaining unbaptized through the negli- 
gence or ignorance of parents, were formed into a 
class by themselves, and were taught their duty to- 
wards God and their neighbour, with a simple prayer 
that God would prepare the way for their speedy 
baptism. The first four questions and answers of 
the Catechism were, of course, interdicted to this 
class, as the repetition of the answers would involve 
connivance with falsehood. 

In another department of the school, Father Silas 
gathered together a number of children not profes- 
sedly belonging to the parish, but gleaned from the 
streets, or from the abodes of the wretched ; intend- 
ing by this to realize some of the peculiar benefits 
of Mr. Raikes's plan, by affording instruction to 
poor and ignorant children, whose parents were not 
disposed or qualified to render it themselves. 

The purgation of the children's library was a work 
of time and labor. It was a motley collection, chiefly 
of semi-religious story-books, many of them imbued 
with the spirit and rancour of Puritanism. Several 
of the tales were of that class in which the manli- 
ness and pluck of the bad boy, are far more impres- 
sive than the spiritless amiability of the good one. 
It need hardly be said that the few really instructive 
Church books, were not much defaced by marks of 
diligent reading. The books rejected by the Rector 
were sent to the paper-mill, as the best way of turn- 



5. Agatha's Sunday -school* — Concluded, 101 

ing them to account. From these sketches it will 
be seen that the true office of a Sunday-school is that 
of a help, (where needed,) in the training of children 
to fulfil the vow and promise made at their baptism. 
The claim of independent position, and an inherent 
right to set forth its own principles, and to take upon 
itself the care and nurture of the souls of the young, 
irrespective of the higher authority of the Church 
and the oversight of her pastors, is an usurpation of 
power which must secretly undermine all stability 
of faith, and unity of spirit, in the parish which gives 
it shelter. But, aside from these abuses, the Sunday- 
school may become a valuable adjunct to the Church. 
Children are more easily brought into unity of mind 
and purpose when they are visibly grouped together. 
The uplifted voices of a crowd of children repeat- 
ing the Creed, will deepen and confirm the faith of 
•each member of that crowd. Unity of any kind is 
best promoted by giving it some outward and visible 
expression. Children when assembled in one com- 
pact and sympathising body can also be more effect- 
ively addressed than in the family or from the 
pulpit. Facility is thus afforded for pointed and 
useful suggestions concerning behaviour in the house 
of God, reverence for all sacred things, errors in doc- 
trine or worship, and breaches of morality. Occa- 
sion is also given for practical instruction in the 
music of the Church, and in all the details of rite and 
ceremony in the order of Divine worship. With such 
aims, the Sunday-school is the handmaid and well- 



102 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



ordered helper of the Church, rather than its intru- 
sive and often obstructive rival. 

The fruits of Father Silas's reform in S. Agatha's 
school soon became apparent. In less than a year 
the superiority of the Churchly system of teaching 
had won the assent of Mr. Weldon, and silenced all 
the murmurs of the disaffected. To the gratifica- 
tion of parents, it was discovered, that while there 
was less strain on the minds of the children than 
under the former regime, yet the amount of in- 
struction received was far greater and more definite. 
The lessons were no longer a burden to the memory, 
nor a weariness to both the flesh and the spirit ; and 
thus the affections of the children were drawn forth 
in alliance with the exercise of the intellect. In 
former days, though Scripture lessons and Prayer- 
book Collects were used and committed to memory, 
yet the comments of the teachers were too hazy,, 
fragmentary, and prosy, to give light and interest to 
a child's unsettled mind. This misty and unsyste- 
matic teaching was brought to a speedy end by 
Father Silas. He set before the children's minds a 
distinct and well-defined object, — the luminous 
Creed of Christendom, in which all the rays of the 
Gospel of Christ converge. Every article of this 
body of heavenly truth was impressed on the hearts 
of the children, by successive lessons and expo- 
sitions, and made influential on their lives. The 
Creed, thus received and believed as the basis of all 
doctrinal teaching, was also the test and corrective 



S. Agatha s Sunday-school. — Concluded. 103 

of all the errors, heresies, and schismatical theories 
of the day, and an unfailing source of strength and 
vitality in the development of the saintly life. 

The reader will, of course understand that the 
improvements in the parish kept pace with those 
in the Sunday-school. Before the expiration of 
Father Silas's second year, he had instituted early 
Celebrations of the most Holy Sacrament on every 
Sunday and holy-day ; had established several 
guilds, clubs, and benevolent societies ; had hired 
and furnished a reading-room for working-men ; 
organized a choir of men and boys ; and, by diligent 
training, had so familiarized the congregation with 
choral service as to qualify them to join with heart 
and voice in the worship of their Lord and Saviour. 

It may be remarked, as a closing word, that the tone 
of decision and Christian manliness thus prevailing 
in the school, and also very noticeable in the parish, 
had a visible effect in modifying and enlightening 
public sentiment concerning the Church and its 
claims. As time passed on, accessions to the Church 
from the religious bodies around, and from the ranks 
of doubtful but honest truth-seekers, became numer- 
ous and valuable. Men at large began to see in the 
Church a constitution and authority more than hu- 
man, and a Faith which no earthly power could 
either create or destroy. Men of calm reflection 
were moved, by the unswerving faith and martyr- 
like devotion of Father Silas, and by the glowing 
life of the parish, to search for themselves, and to 



104 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

discover, if possible, the secret cause of a faithful- 
ness that would never bend to error, and a confi- 
dence that neither trial nor reproach could shake. 
And in their search no other explication could they 
find for this strange phenomenon, than a conviction 
that these people, — unlike the homeless wanderers 
in the deserts of misbelief, — had found a secure 
abode in that "city which hath foundations, whose 
Builder and Maker is God," and were verily citizens 
of that Kingdom and Church of the Redeemer, 
against which no worldly weapon can ever prosper, 
nor the gates of hell ever prevail. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



THE PRIEST AND THE NEOPHYTE. 

DR. PENROSE was rector of Patrington, a 
village of moderate size, with a church, and 
several meeting-houses. The Doctor was a man of 
character, as the reader will find out in the pages 
following. It is needful only to say in advance, 
that he was forty-five years old, a Churchman of the 
old-fashioned type, and was revered for his wisdom, 
respected for his fidelity, loved for his tenderness, 
and envied for his wife. 

The Doctor was sitting in his study one morning, 
when he received a letter from a farmer, whose name 
was Hardpan, with the request that it should be 
promptly answered. 

Mr. Hardpan was a man of thrift, property, and 
consequence. His early life had been a long strug- 
gle with adversity and its accompanying grievances ; 
but, through all this, there was in his mind a float- 
ing image of a homestead, with its productive fields, 
a nice investment in stocks and bonds, and the re- 
spectful deference of many less fortunate neighbours. 
All this he had now attained by his indomitable en- 
ergy, hopefulness, and self-reliance. Hardpan, the 
5* 



io6 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



toiling clod-hopper of former days, had become the 
nabob for miles around. Everybody knew it, and 
some of them felt it. 

But prosperous as he was, Mr. Hardpan had oc- 
casion very often to lament that, in his ideal of life 
and its charms, he had forgotten to include the 
schoolmaster. Arithmetic he knew, and tables of 
interest ; for they had grown familiar to him by in- 
cessant practice. But, in other departments, a 
stripling of ten years' old would have outranked him. 
His writing might have passed for Syriac, his spell- 
ing as an exercise in phonetics, and his grammar as 
a felicitous array of conundrums. This was quite 
apparent to Dr. Penrose, when he opened the afore- 
said letter, and entered upon its interpretation. It 
was a long rambling statement of Mr. Hardpan's 
religious experience, his conversion at a camp-meet- 
ing, about eight months before, his desire to become 
" a Member of the Episcopal Church/' and his wish 
to be baptized, in private, " on Monday next," as 
he " expected to be in the village on that day, on 
business." 

There were several things in Mr. Hardpan's let- 
ter, which led the Doctor into a train of rather un- 
pleasant reflections. There Was a tone of assurance 
or self-complacency about it, which was out of the 
line of such communications. By no word or allu- 
sion did the writer seem conscious that the Rector 
might possibly have a word to say in the case. Mr. 
Hardpan evidently believed that he was the best 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 107 



judge of his own fitness for baptism, or for anything 
else ; and so, he ended his letter with these signifi- 
cant words : — " I expect to be at Episcopal meeting 
next Sabbath day, if the Waggins in order and if 
the Wethers good. You may put my name down 
on the book as a Member \ for I shall come to the 
saycrament next time. And I hop to come pritty 
reglar, if I find it konvenient, or think it necessary." 
The Doctor, in replying, made no comments, but 
invited Mr. Hardpan to an interview. 

When Sunday came, the sun shone brightly, and 
everything seemed to favor Mr. Hardpan's attend- 
ance at " Episcopal meeting." In God's holy temple, 
litanies and hallelujahs, misereres and hosannas 
burst forth alternately from the worshippers, and 
were wafted onward to the throne of God. And in 
that temple was a font, and also a priest to attend it, 
and mystical waters might have flowed for the wash- 
ing away of sin. The Great Baptizer was there, 
invisibly present, to receive and to bless. Mingled 
with the faithful were some of the unregenerate, — 
" hearers of the word, but not doers thereof." They 
had come because it is honorable to render even an 
outward homage to the King of kings, and safer to 
keep holy-day near the altar of God, than to profane 
it in " the tents of ungodliness." But Mr. Hardpan 
was not there. Instead of preparing to consecrate 
with solemn joy the eve of his expected baptism, by 
resorting to the church and seeking admission as a 
true penitent, even to the outer-courts of the Lord's 



108 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



sanctuary, he had other uses for sacred time, and 
very different engagements to absorb his attention. 
Very true, he had thought of riding over to Patring- 
ton Church, partly to worship God, and partly to 
hear the Doctor. But the weather was uncomfort- 
ably hot, the road long and dusty, the horses jaded 
with a week's labor ; and he himself felt an unusual 
shortness of breath after breakfast, and he must take 
care of himself, for " mercy is better than sacrifice." 
Besides, his farm and family needed special watch- 
ing against tramps and sundry outlaws, who had 
lately committed depredations in the neighbourhood ; 
so that, all things considered, it seemed to Mr. 
Hardpan to be his bounden duty to remain at his 
post, and hallow the day by reading the Bible and 
the Pilgrim's Progress. 

Dr. Penrose thought otherwise. He glanced 
along the front pews, where strangers were sure to 
be seated by the courteous warden, and none but 
familiar faces met his eyes. A sigh more than 
once escaped from him during the solemnities of the 
service, as he thought of one by whom the Lord's 
day was apparently so little honoured ; and how 
the sacred hours of the festival were lost to him, 
even as a time of spiritual preparation for his bap- 
tism. Then the Doctor thought of the incongrui- 
ties between Hardpan's pious wishes and his doubt- 
ful conduct ; for, on the morrow, the pastor would 
be expected to sign this man's brow " with the sign 
of the cross," unseen of men ; to-morrow, not " before 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 



109 



many witnesses," but in all the shame of privacy, he 
whose feet do not "stand in thy gates, O Jeru- 
salem, 55 desires and expects to be named " Christ's 
faithful soldier and servant, 55 to be received " into 
the congregation of Christ's flock, 55 and will doubt- 
less persuade himself that he is ready " to fight 
manfully against sin, the world, and the devil. 55 

Monday came — the day on which the aspiring 
farmer was to see the issue of his application. The 
morning sun was already high, and his rays were 
beautifully illuminating a colored transparency of 
the choir of Winchester cathedral, hanging in Dr. 
Penrose's study-window. It was not an ordinary 
" shade, 55 but a richly executed painting — the per- 
spective, the coloring, and the management of light 
and shade, all perfect and harmonious. " It is 
surely most strange, 55 murmured the Doctor, " that 
the Christians of the 6 dark ages 5 should have had 
such noble and almost super-human conceptions of 
the honor due to God, as to have designed and 
raised up these glorious sanctuaries, as a tribute to 
His love and greatness. 55 But, while he was study- 
ing this problem, his attention was drawn off by a 
light tap at the door ; and, a moment after, one of 
his vestrymen entered the room, accompanied by 
the personage whose arrival had been expected. 
The vestryman, to whom Mr. Hardpan had given 
some hint of his purpose, retired after a few min- 
utes 5 conversation, leaving the Doctor alone with 
his visitor. 



1 10 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Dr. Penrose had quite naturally drawn, in his own 
mind, a rough and not very attractive picture of the 
candidate for private baptism. But, to his surprise 
and gratification, he now found that the man himself 
corresponded in hardly any respect with the notion 
he had prematurely formed of him. Robust, manly, 
with a fine eye, a thoughtful brow, and the calm se- 
dateness of one whose gray locks seemed to mark 
him as just beyond the meridian of life, he sat be- 
fore the Doctor, evidently weighing in his mind the 
various modes of approaching the topic which, be- 
fore all others, was to be the subject of the interview. 

Mr. Hardpan was in a new position, and he felt 
it. There was a kind of dignity and easy authority 
in Dr. Penrose's manner which was different alto- 
gether from anything which Hardpan had observed 
in the " preachers " with whom he had been con- 
versant. There was nothing in it of assumption 
and self-importance ; for, if any such qualities had 
appeared in the Doctor, the visitor w r ould not have 
been aAved in the least, as he knew very well how 
to make an effectual use of the lex talionis. On the 
part of Dr. Penrose, the simple consciousness of 
being in possession of a Divine commission to min- 
ister in holy things was enough to give character to 
his life and habits, and to impress others with a 
feeling of the reality of his authority. It had some 
effect on Mr. Hardpan himself at first ; and his con- 
duct at the opening of the interview was as respect- 
ful as could be desired. 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 1 1 1 



" I suppose, Sir," said he, after some general con- 
versation, " I suppose, Sir, that we may as well 
come to business at once ; for, as I told you in my 
letter, I want to join your Church." 

" I understand your intention," said the Doctor ; 
" and I trust that the very serious step you propose 
to take has been carefully and deliberately con- 
sidered." 

" As to that," replied Hardpan, " I think it's all 
right, Sir. Oh, the goodness of God is great ! I 
know that I've been an awful sinner. I've been a 
thoughtless creature in my time, Sir. But the 
Lord has had pity on me, and pardoned me. 
Though I was once a grievous worldling, yet, God 
be praised, I've found mercy, and I feel sure that all 
my sins are washed away ; " and here Mr. Hardpan, 
unable to proceed, concealed his face in his hands, 
and actually burst into tears. 

Dr. Penrose, who had been listening with all at- 
tention, was quite overcome with surprise to see the 
strong man thus bowed down under the pressure of 
feeling. It was certainly an unusual scene, and 
seemed to bear witness to the truth of Hardpan's 
words. Already the Doctor began to rebuke himself 
for the distrust he had entertained, and to form a 
most favorable judgment of one who, as yet, showed 
no symptoms whatever of the self-sufficiency which 
appeared so offensively in almost every line of the 
letter which he had penned. 

A few minutes passed before the visitor recovered 



112 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

his calmness, during which the Rector took occasion 
to throw in a few friendly and encouraging remarks ; 
and then Hardpan went on to say, " Sir, you'll par- 
don my weakness, I hope. My feelings get so ex- 
cited when I think of God's great love to me, an 
unworthy sinner, that I can't keep 'em down. What 
I was saying just now fetched my mind round to the 
time when I was converted, and it overcame me. I 
never know'd what religion was before ; but then it 
came all at once, and filled me quite full of joy and 
peace." And so Mr. Hardpan went on for several 
minutes, — the Doctor's interest naturally increasing 
as he proceeded ; for nothing could well exceed the 
apparent simplicity and earnestness of the visitor's 
replies to some questions here proposed to him, in 
order to obtain a more definite idea of the doctrinal 
views he had adopted. The homely and blunt style 
in which he expressed himself, Dr. Penrose was too 
much in earnest and too wise to care for. Indeed, 
it seemed now to lose much of its offensiveness, and 
to stand as an evidence of Hardpan's honesty and 
unaffected sincerity, and of his desire rather to give 
satisfaction respecting his motives than to make out 
a case, and seek to exalt himself by a display of fine 
words and glittering thoughts, at the most unsuit- 
able of all times, and at the risk of being detected 
in spite of all the disguise. 

But Mr. Hardpan had still more to say. After a 
pause, during which there was an effort to drive off 
some degree of conscious embarrassment, mingled 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 



ii3 



with that indescribable hesitancy of manner and 
irregularity of breathing, which often accompany 
intense and exciting thoughtfulness, he prepared to 
give a more detailed statement on a point which he 
had now fairly approached. 

Drawing his chair a little closer to Dr. Penrose, 
and looking very inquiringly and with an air of 
wonderful simplicity in his face, he said, " May be 
you would like to hear me tell how the Lord in His 
mercy converted me ? " 

" Go on, my friend," said the Doctor, " and you 
may be very sure of my attention." 

"Well, then, it was on the 17th of December, last 
year, just after the gale in which my brother Eph- 
r aim's schooner was druv ashore near Cape Horn- 
blende. I heard about the wreck, but didn't know 
who it belonged to. The Cape was about 15 or 20 
miles from Fairgrove, (that's the name of my farm ;) 
and as there was a camp-meeting near there, I made 
up my mind to go there, and hear the news, and see 
what was going on. I needn't take up time, Sir, in 
telling about the crowds of people, and the preach- 
ing and singing. Everybody knows all about that. 
But the gist of the matter was this. There was one 
of the preachers who laid on so earnestly that I 
couldn't help listening to him. He was exhorting 
people to give up their sins at once, and make their 
salvation sure before it was too late. As near as I 
can recollect, he said, ' Some of you are making, at 
this moment, the worst of all experiments. You 



114 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



are doubting whether God's promises and threaten- 
ings are true ; and you are waiting till death 
comes to decide the question for you. But if the 
Bible proves true, then, as soon as you open your 
eyes in eternity, you will find that you have lost all. 
Soul and body are both doomed to ruin, and you 
can never return to life in order to make up what 
you have lost by this fatal experiment. And that 
the word of God will prove true, is proclaimed by a 
thousand evidences both inside and outside of vou. 

Oh, tempt not the Almighty, but remember! ' 

And, Sir, the word c remember ' was hardly out of 
his mouth, when there was a sudden noise and dis- 
turbance in the meeting, and somebody called out 
that a man had fallen down in a fit. There happened 
to be a doctor on the platform, sitting near the preach- 
er ; and he ran down, and told the people to take the 
man out of the crowd, and give him fresh air outside. 
Some of the stoutest of them picked up the man, and 
did as the doctor told 'em. But it was of no use ; 
for in a minute or two the word was, ' He's dead ; 
he's dead ; ' and soon it echoed all through the tent, 
and out into the woods. I elbowed my way as well 
as I could, till I got into a shed, and close up to the 
bench on which they had laid the man. And then, 
— O Sir, how shall I tell you ? I sunk down on my 
knees as if I'd been thunderstruck ; for it was my 
brother Ephraim's corpse that laid before me." 

The rest of the story was briefly this. Ephraim 
had escaped from the wreck, with many bruises, 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 115 

after a hard struggle for life ; and, in a state of great 
exhaustion, had managed to reach a neighbouring 
farm-house. A day or two after, he had imprudent- 
ly walked from this retreat to the camp-meeting, 
had over-taxed his strength, and brought on a sud- 
den prostration from which there was no recovery. 

The reader may well imagine that the sympathies 
of Dr. Penrose were not a little touched by the 
strange story of his visitor, and also by the deep 
emotion manifested by Hardpan when he had pro- 
ceeded thus far. Some considerable time passed 
before Hardpan was able to relate in connected lan- 
guage that part of the narrative which the Doctor 
would be most impatient to hear, embracing, as he 
assured him it did, his complete "conversion" and 
" change of heart." The substance of it was, that 
the warning given by the preacher, so suddenly en- 
forced by the calamity just mentioned, made a deep 
impression on his mind ; that all his sins appeared 
to confront him ; that, at last, the light of the Di- 
vine favor burst into his mind, relieving him from 
the burden of his guilt, transforming him into a new 
creature, and inflaming his whole soul with such de- 
sires as the Psalmist expressed when he exclaimed, 
" Whom have I in heaven but Thee ! and there is 
none upon earth that I desire in comparison of 
Thee ! " 



To all this, — to every word and every turn of 
thought,— Dr. Penrose listened with profound at- 



1 1 6 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



tention, generously giving credit to his visitor for 
unbounded sincerity, and for purity of motive quite 
equal to the demands of the narrative. Still, ardent, 
affectionate, and benevolently indulgent as were the 
Doctor's feelings, it is but right to say that he was 
not quite satisfied, when, after hearing all that his 
friend had to say, he took a general review of the facts 
and opinions he could gather, compared them with 
the language of the strange letter in his possession, and 
endeavoured to obtain a clear view of the whole case. 
He could not, for instance, reconcile Mr. Hardpan's 
apparent earnestness and knowledge of a Christian's 
duty, with the glaring fact that so long a period as 
eight months had been permitted to elapse before he 
had sought the blessings of holy baptism, or mani- 
fested much eagerness to approach the Sacrament of 
Christ's body and blood. Hardpan had been wander- 
ing about as a sheep without a shepherd ; and now, 
for the first time, he had concluded to enter the fold. 
It could not well be doubted that he possessed relig- 
ious feelings, and had embraced several prominent 
articles of the Christian faith. But yet there was a 
certain vagueness and a peculiar mannerism in the 
statement of his conversion and "experience," which 
forcibly brought to mind the language of the revival 
school or the " anxious seat," and gave rise to some 
fear on the part of Dr. Penrose, that he had before 
him one of those Christians in the abstract, who are 
too apt to repose on mere trust and feeling, to the neg- 
lect of prompt, self-denying and childlike obedience. 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 117 

It was a painful thought — deeply so to the deli- 
cate sensibility of the Doctor's heart, — and especially 
so amid the circumstances of a case in which its 
entry seemed so like an unamiable intrusion. But 
enquiry could not here be waived without a trespass 
of conscience or violation of duty. There was a 
mystery, at least, about Mr. Hardpan's course, which 
needed to be cleared up. On what basis did his 
religion- rest ? Of what elements was his hope of 
salvation formed ? In what way were his strong 
feelings to be consistently reconciled with his neg- 
lect of the Christian Church and Sacraments ? Was 
he trusting his soul on the saving virtue of a single 
act of faith ? Was he relying with dangerous con- 
fidence on the favorable issue in eternity of a sudden 
conversion ? Had he rooted himself on the per- 
suasion that God thinks lightly of the sins of His 
chosen ? Had he any true conceptions of the nature 
of " the mystical body of Christ," and of the offices 
and powers of the sacred Ministry? Did he now 
desire baptism as the mere form of initiation to the 
privileges of a voluntary religious body ? Did he 
hold the Church to be indeed the mighty and glo- 
rious army of the Redeemer, or simply a sect among 
sects, framed and upheld in its visible form by men, 
whose breath is in their nostrils ? These and such 
like were the questions which darted across the ap- 
prehensive mind of Dr. Penrose, as soon as he began 
to reflect on the tone of Hardpan's statement, and 
his long delay in seeking the tender care of " the 



n8 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



mother of us all." Whether they could be satisfac- 
torily answered, he knew not. Perhaps a word might 
explain the w r hole ; or the case might prove less 
formidable than it seemed. But it carried, neverthe- 
less, an unpleasant aspect. It afforded scope for 
doubts; and with the doubts came suspicions and 
anxieties, overshadowed with a frowning presenti- 
ment of evil. 

No further progress, of course, could be made, till 
the Doctor's scruples were removed ; and accord- 
ingly, he determined to obtain, if practicable, a full 
conviction of their groundlessness, and that too, 
without a moment's delay. 

Addressing Mr. Hardpan with great seriousness 
of manner the Doctor began. " My worthy friend, 
a narrative such as you have now favored me w r ith, 
cannot be heard by a Minister of Christ without 
exciting very high and grateful thoughts respecting 
the mercy of Him c who gave Himself for us, that 
He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify 
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good 
works.' I have listened with close attention to the 
assurances you have given me of your serious re- 
pentance, your faith in the Redeemer, and of your 
convictions that through his love and merits you 
have received the pardon of your sins, and been in- 
spired with a firm hope of eternal salvation. Per- 
mit me, however, to enquire, how have you employed 
the many months which have intervened between 
the time when, as you say, you were 6 born again,' 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 119 

and the present period, in which you are desirous of 
receiving Christian baptism ? " 

With some uneasiness and hesitation, and a sud- 
den change (which Dr. Penrose noticed) in the ex- 
pression of his eye, he answered : " Well, Sir ; that's 
rather a close sort of question for you to ask ; but 
I'm not ashamed to say that I have endeavoured to 
walk worthy, and to keep up a good hope. God 
knows we all have short-comings. I dare say you 
have felt it yourself many a time. But, on the whole, 
we are going on Zion-ward ; that's a comfort, and 
we shan't be left to ourselves." 

" You have probably sought in the holy Script- 
ures "said the Doctor, "especially in the New Testa- 
ment, some directions relative to the course of 
obedience which a disciple of the Redeemer ought 
to pursue." 

" Of course I have, Sir ; and I guess you'd believe 
that I know how to search the Scriptures, if you 
were to see how many notes and explanations I 
have made on the blank leaves and margins of my 
family Bible, especially on Paul's Epistles. " 

" I may seem, perhaps, a little particular, my good 
sir," continued the Rector ; " but, for my own sat- 
isfaction as a Minister of Christ, I cannot avoid 
asking, How have you passed your time on the 
numerous Sundays, at least, which have invited you 
to the public worship of God, since the period of 
your conversion ? " 

" As to that, Sir " he answered, with some anima- 



120 Episodes hi Clerical and Parish Life. 



tion and a little tartness, " I can very soon satisfy 
your curiosity, if you want to know. You see " 

" I beg of you " interrupted the Rector, " not to 
think that mere curiosity led me to ask such a ques- 
tion. Far from it. If you will but reflect on the 
sacredness of the relation which I am to maintain 
towards you as your pastor and spiritual guide, I 
think you will hardly fail to discover my true motive 
in making the enquiry." 

"Well," said he, "it's very likely you meant no 
harm in touchin' me kind o' close, and I don't care 
if I tell you ; though it isn't everybody's business, — 
that's a fact. As soon, Sir, as I got home again after 
Ephraim's funeral, and the better sort of people 
found out that I had become pious, I thought that I 
ought to set a good example to the rest of them by 
keeping the Sabbath-day holy. So I went at first 
to the old Dutch church at the Corners, with Jacob 
Frost and some other neighbours. But I soon got 
tired of the sort of doctrine the Domine held forth, 
— he's an old humdrum, besides, — and so I concluded 
on the whole that I wouldn't jine them. Well, you 
see, there's a Presbyterian meeting on the turnpike, 
about two miles this side of my farm ; and I went 
there to hear preaching through the best part of the 
winter ; and if they hadn't kept up such a steady ding- 
dong about Calvin's pints every Sabbath, I don't 
know but I should have cast in my lot with them ; 
for I liked their ways well enough, and got consider- 
ably in with the people, some of whom, I think, are 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 121 

Christians, after all. The next place I tried was the 
Union meeting, near the bark-mill on Sycamore 
Creek. It was called the ' Union ' because the Baptists 
and Covenanters built it to use between them ; the 
one kind to hold forth in the morning, and the 
other in the afternoon. W ell, I heard them both, 
over and over again. But I was no better off ; for 
they kept up such a bothering for and against bap- 
tizing babies and sousing grown-up people in the 
water, and all that sort o' thing, that I was com- 
pletely worried out, and longed to hear somebody 
preach the real Gospel. Now, what could I do, 
when I was hampered at this rate, but stay at home 
and read the Bible ? The ministers didn't preach 
the truth ; and some of them harped aw r ay against 
free-will, as if every man in this free country was a 
stock or a stone. You'd have thought from what 
they said, that God made millions and millions of 
men, just for the purpose of telling 'em to do 
something that they couldn't do, and then condemn- 
ing them for not doing it. I hope you don't preach 
such doctrine in the Episcopalian Church, do you ?" 

" By no means," answered Dr. Penrose, " for, in 
that case, the sermon would be completely ccmtra- 
dicted and refuted by the Prayer-book." 

" Well, so I thought ; and that's the reason why I 
wish to join you." 

" But you must allow me to ask whether that is 
your only reason ? " 

" I can't say that it is, exactly. There's some- 
6 



122 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



thing, you know, in the sort o' company a body 
keeps. Now a good many of the people in my 
neighbourhood are so self-righteous that I am really 
afeard of getting spoilt by mixing among them ; and 
the rest are so awfully bigoted and ignorant, that 
I've never been able to bring 'em over to the truth ; 
and so there's no use in talking with them or try- 
ing to make them better. But I've heard say that 
the Episcopals are more liberal, and don't persecute. 
I'm a great friend, Sir, of liberty of conscience; 
and if the love of God has been shed abroad in 
the hearts of your congregation, I'm sure they'll see 
things just as I do ; and if that's so, I don't see why 
we mayn't have joy and comfort in each other." 

" I am sorry, my dear sir, that you cannot name 
some more substantial reasons than these for your 
favorable opinion of the Church." 

" Well, as to that," said Hardpan, thrusting up 
his spectacles to the top of his forehead, "as to 
that, I've made up my mind that your Church is 
about as near right as any denomination I know of. 
I hope that's enough, without going into particulars, 
which are neither here nor there." And, having 
thus disposed of the matter so logically, he looked 
at Dr. Penrose, as if excessively wounded by the 
cool ingratitude which that gentleman seemed to 
manifest, considering that such very handsome con- 
cessions had been made in regard to the comparative 
merits of the Church. 

But the Doctor had not yet done ; for, in his 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 



123 



opinion, enough had not been said. " You spoke, 
Sir, just now," said he, " of the bigotry you had met 
with among the religious societies of your neighbour- 
hood. May it not be possible that you have used 
this very offensive word where you should rather 
have said consistency or firmness in adhering to 
their respective systems of doctrine ? " 

" But their doctrines, I tell you, ain't right and 
according to Scripter." 

" Very likely they would affirm the contrary, and 
ascribe to you as much error as you impute to them" 

" They can't do it ; for I take my views right 
straight out of the Bible." 

" Perhaps they think that they do the same." 

" No they don't, because they can't. The Bible's 
right agen them ; and they needn't stick up and be 
conceited as they are." 

" Well, Sir, waiving that point for the present," 
said the Doctor, " I only ask whether it would not 
be better for you to use the term £ bigotry ' with a 
little more consideration for the opinions and feelings 
of those to whom you apply it ? " 

" Upon my word as an honest man, I can't see 
what you are driving at." 

" I have made this enquiry," continued Dr. Pen- 
rose, very mildly, " under some fear that you will 
charge the Church itself with the same crime, when 
you find that your own religious opinions, so far as 
they maybe erroneous, must give way to her author- 
ized teaching, and " 



124 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

"What's that you say?" demanded Hardpan, 
who sat exceedingly erect, as if he had been treated 
very unceremoniously, and expected to be insulted. 

" I am only afraid," resumed the Doctor, " that 
you will think the Church somewhat 'bigoted,' 
when you find that her teaching is to control your 
private opinion, in some measure, — that the liberty 
you appear to prize so much will be limited by a 
definite standard of faith which you must embrace ; 
by an established system of public worship in which 
you must unite ; by certain views of Apostolic order, 
and by a code of disciplinary regulations, — to all 
which the concurrence and submission of every 
member of the Church is required, from the Bishops 
or chief pastors, down to the humblest of the laity." 

" Good gracious ! " said the candidate for bap- 
tism, in undisguised amazement. " Do you expect 
to tie and hamper, after this fashion, the liberty of a 
man who has been set free ? Sir, I've got the love 
of God in my heart, and I know it. I feel it ; I give 
you my word for it. I'm a converted man, if there 
ever was one. That's all you can ask ; and I don't 
care a brass button-top for all the beggarly elements 
and forms of any sect or Church from Passama- 
quoddy Bay to Cape Horn." 

" My good sir," said the Doctor, :t let me entreat 
you to be calm. Your wish, it has been supposed, 
is to receive Christian baptism." 

" I know that without you telling on it. What 
next ?" 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 125 



" You have applied for baptism to one who is au- 
thorized, by virtue of a commission from Christ, to 
administer that holy Sacrament." 

" That's just as it happens. Maybe so, and maybe 
not. Humph ! " 

" And by receiving baptism," continued the Rec- 
tor, "you will be made a member, not of a sect, but 
of that sacred body which bears the name of the 
' One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church ; ' for 
at the time when you are baptized, this proclamation 
will be made ; — 6 We receive this person into the 
Congregation of Christ's flock ; ' and you will have 
publicly renounced c the devil and all his works,' de- 
clared your belief in all the Articles of the Christian 
Faith, as contained in the Apostles' Creed, and 
promised to c keep God's holy will and command- 
ments, and to walk in the same all the days of your 
life.' Have you thought of all this, and weighed 
well the responsibility, the dignity, and the gracious 
privileges to which you are thus to be advanced, as 
a c member incorporate of the body of Christ ? ' " 

A storm was evidently gathering its forces while 
the Rector was uttering these words with all proper 
distinctness and solemnity; for Mr. Hardpan be- 
came very uneasy, and could not avoid betraying, 
by unmistakable signs, the agitation of his mind. 
For a moment or two there was a dead silence, — 
Hardpan seeming bewildered. Then, moving his 
chair along till he had brought himself directly in front 
of his patient examiner, — knee to knee, — he bent for- 



126 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



ward, gazed in the Doctor's face with a most unami- 
able and sarcastic expression, slowly and pompously- 
raised his arm and quivering finger breast-high, and 
said, in an excited and somewhat threatening tone 
of voice, " Aha, Sir ! I understand now what you are 
at ; but I ain't such a fool as you think I am. And 
now, I have just one question to ask yon, Sir; and 
I'll tell you plainly beforehand that a great deal de- 
pends on the answer I get. Mind me, Sir ! Come 
right up to the question, and don't think how you 
can dodge round it ; for I'm in earnest ; I'm in ear- 
nest, Sir ! Do you hear me ? " And, saying this, 
he struck the spacious palm of his hand with vio- 
lence on the expanse of his right knee, as if to show 
that he had arrived at a pitch of determination 
which must command respect. 

Dr. Penrose could not possibly imagine what the 
man was about. But he thought it the wiser course 
to say nothing, till he had learned the worst, and 
obtained some olimmerina; idea of the fate that 
awaited him. Hardpan then went on to propound 
his question, with as much .solemnity and delibera- 
tion as if the destiny of an empire was to be settled 
by the reply. Almost choking with rage, and pale 
as a spectre, he stammered out : — " Do — you — be- 
lieve, — really — believe — as old Bishop What's-his- 
name — the bigot — said he did, — that no man — can 
be a lawful Minister — without — being ordained by 
a Bishop ? " 

The good Doctor, infinitely relieved on finding 



The Priest and the Neophyte. 



127 



that this was all, and that the mountains were not 
likely to be rent in twain, answered, at once ; — 
" Most unquestionably 1 Sir. I should no more think 
of 6 dodging,' as you call it, such an enquiry, than I 
would dodge any other involving a scriptural fact, 
supported by the testimony of the Church for eigh- 
teen centuries, and never denied by any considerable 
body of men, even among the most virulent of the 
old sects and heresies." 

Hardpan was on his feet in a moment, and fairly 
shouted, — with the emphasis, the air, and the victo- 
rious look of one who is about to wither and annihi- 
late an opponent — " Then you may rely upon it, Sir, 
that you've done for yourself 'now ; for, as sure as my 
name's Reuben Hardpan, I'll never be baptized by 
you or your likes, — never — never, — even if I was go- 
ing to give up the ghost right away ! And so you 
may make yourself easy about me> Sir; for the sun 
will rise in the West before I consent to jine such a 
Church as yourn ! " And after this violent explo- 
sion, he folded up his spectacles, seized his hat and 
carriage-whip, — made the best of his way to the 
door, without noticing the Doctor, and was about to 
depart in a fit of magnificent disdain. 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE PRIEST AND THE NEOPHYTE — CONCLUDED. 

BUT the interview was not to be so abruptly 
broken off; for, as Hardpan's " religion " had 
demonstrably left the old Adam in full possession 
of his tongue and temper, there was some danger 
that this old " infection of nature " might, in the ex- 
isting posture of affairs, work some mischief to the 
Doctor, among people outside, if Hardpan were al- 
lowed to proclaim in the village (as he probably 
would,) the issue of an unfinished controversy, and 
that too in his own version of it. The Doctor, there- 
fore, under the urgency of these thoughts, and with 
a determination also to bring his visitor to a better 
mind, (if practicable,) went quietly to the door, 
turned the key, and then said : — " Mr. Hardpan, be- 
fore we part, I should be pleased to receive from you 
such explanations of your conduct as will atone, in 
some measure, for your violation of the sanctity of 
a Clergyman's house, and for the fierce and unholy 
language in which you have dared to assail God's 
own Church. Will you have the politeness, then, 
to inform me by what unfortunate accident I have 
provoked .you to the exhibition of feelings so irrec- 



The Priest and the Neophyte. — Concluded. 129 

oncilable with those which marked the opening of 
our conference ? " 

" I've told you my mind already/' said Hardpan. 
" You know now what / am, and I know what you 
are. When we began our talk, I didn't know you as 
I do now, or I'll be hanged if I'd have taken so much 
trouble as I did to tell you about my conversion. 
You're not the sort of man to teach me, Sir ; for 
you're a bigot,— about the stiffest bigot that I ever 
set eyes on. God help you ! " 

" But, Mr. Hardpan, why do you think me such ? 
If / am to be called a bigot because I differ from you, 
are not you equally entitled to the epithet for differ- 
ing from me ? And yet I should be very sorry to 
apply to you so opprobrious a term, though you have 
expressed opinions which many would consider high- 
ly intolerant and acrimonious." 

"You have said quite enough," he answered, "to 
satisfy me that the root of the matter isn't in you. 
Oh that the Lord would give you a new sperrit, and 
open your eyes to see what an uncharitable soul you 
have ! Don't talk to me any more about your 
Church, and Bishops, and all that. I believe this — 
this, — Sir, — that it's gifts and piety that makes a 
Minister ; and, I tell you, I'd as lief be baptized by 
one of the preachers at Sycamore Creek, as by you, 
or your hoity-toity Bishop ; because I think any one 
of them has just as good a right to do it as you 
have." 

" Sir," said Dr. Penrose, with dignified seriousness, 
6* 



130 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

" if you were a member of my flock I should feel 
justified in rebuking you sharply for this most un- 
provoked assault, and for the harsh language in 
which you have taken the liberty to express your 
mind. As it is, I will only inform you that the 
Gospel, as the Church understands it, gives no man 
the privilege of dispensing with the courtesy usually 
expected in a gentleman. And we are also accus- 
tomed to teach that some respect is due to the cler- 
ical office, even if it should be nothing more than 
the refraining of the tongue from that kind of lan- 
guage which, even among men of the world, would 
be ranked under the head of insolence." 

" My sakes ! pretty plain talk, I think, to a man 
of my years," said our irascible nabob. " But I 
understand you, Sir ; I understand you. And, take 
my word for it, these high-flying notions about your 
Church won't go down in this free and independent 
nation. People won't stand it, Sir, — mind, that. I 
can see which way the wind blows as well as you can. 
Fat Bishops and lazy parsons, — that's it. You are all 
as proud as popes about your Apostolic Succession, 
as you call it ; just as if the Lord didn't make Min- 
isters for us, without asking leave of your Bishops." 

" I grant you," replied the Rector (saying nothing to 
all this abuse), " that the Lord alone has power and 
authority to send laborers into his vineyard. But how 
are you to distinguish those who are sent and commis- 
sioned by Him, from others who act without being 
sent, or contrive in some way to send each other ? " 



The Priest and the Neophyte. — Concluded. 131 

" I know them, Sir, by their works. Souls are 
converted ; and this proves that they are God's 
Ministers." 

" But you must surely be aware that all who are 
instrumental in doing good are not invested with 
the authority of the ministerial office. Pious women, 
for instance, have often been the agents by whom 
Divine truth has been brought to the ears of the 
impenitent, and with the most salutary effect ; but 
this was no proof that they were in holy Orders. 
Laymen of all classes — influential speakers, accom- 
plished writers, editors of religious papers, and even 
men of very humble capacities, who have yet been 
able ' to speak a word in season,' have frequently 
been the means of arresting men in their career of 
sin, and leading them to the cross of Christ. I have 
even heard of an infidel who preached in sport to 
his associates, and found their eyes and his own 
streaming with penitential tears. But it does not 
follow that all these persons were in the sacred Min- 
istry. Your assertion, therefore, proves entirely too 
much, and refutes itself." 

To this absolute settlement of the question Hard- 
pan found himself, for a few moments, incompetent 
to frame a reply. But soon, recovering himself, and 
assuming a look of extreme surprise, as if a very 
artful trick had been played on his boundless hon- 
esty, he raised his eyebrows, and in a high falsetto 
voice, said : " Bless my heart, Sir ! do you expect to 
come round me in this way, like a sneaking Jesuit ? 



132 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



I tell you, the gospel's the gospel, Bishop or no 
Bishop." 

"Very true," rejoined the Doctor, not at all 
alarmed ; " but I am inclined to think, that, had it 
not been for the Bishops, neither you nor I would 
ever have heard of the Gospel." 

" You're wrong there, again ; for, whether we 
have the Church or not, we've got the Bible, Sir,— 
the blessed Bible." 

" And," said the Rector, " you may thank the 
Church for giving it you." 

" But can't you see what hundreds of souls are 
converted by preachers who don't belong to your 
Church ; and how Paul said he rejoiced when he 
heard tell of some who preached Christ even of con- 
tention ? " 

" That, of course, is not denied ; but you must 
take care, Mr. Hardpan, lest you fall into the error 
of ascribing to men the good influences which ema- 
nate only from the truth they happen sometimes to 
proclaim." 

rt I don't intend to do that," replied the visitor ; 
" but I see no odds whether I come to Church at 
Patrington to hear you preach, or sit under some 
other Minister four or five miles nearer home, if he 
holds forth the real Gospel." 

" You forget that you have already confessed your 
dissatisfaction with such exhibitions of the Gospel 
as they gave, and your preference for the purer faith 
of the Church," rejoined the Doctor. " And as to 



The Priest and the Neophyte. — Concluded. 133 

the other point, constituting the difficulty on which 
you so much dwell, I offered a sufficient answer, just 
now, in very few words. But you met it with mere 
ridicule, instead of receiving it candidly. I appealed 
simply to your reason and good sense, without any 
attempt to ' come round you like a Jesuit. 5 But as 
you still seem unconvinced, and disposed to over- 
look the difference between a Divinely authorized 
and a self-created Ministry, and to rest everything on 
the question of apparent success or usefulness, I 
must beg your attention a little longer ; for I would 
not lose the opportunity of removing from your 
mind an error by which many have been deluded." 

"You can go on, Sir, if you have a mind to," 
said Mr. Hardpan ; " but if you think to change 
my opinion, I guess you'll be mistaken. Mind that." 

"The reason, then," resumed the Doctor, whose 
patience was almost inexhaustible, — " the reason 
why success attends the preaching of the Gospel by 
those who are not sent, is simply this, 6 The word of 
God is not bound.' No man can absolutely prevent 
the operation of Divine truth on any other mind 
than his own. Of such truth especially may we say, 
' It is mighty, and will prevail.' Revelation is a 
voice proceeding from the throne of God, — a voice 
which will be heard, and must accomplish the thing 
for which it is sent. And, therefore, from whose 
mouth soever it is heard, — so it be the pure truth 
of God, — it will bear the mighty influence which 
Heaven has conferred upon it." 



134 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

" As sure as fate ! I'm glad to hear you speak the 
truth, for once at any rate. You're coming round, 
after all, as I thought you would. So, go ahead ! " 
interrupted Hardpan, thinking that Dr. Penrose 
had committed himself, or was bending very de- 
cidedly toward the " liberal " side of the argument. 

But the Doctor went on, without noticing his 
visitor's premature shout of triumph. " Why should 
it not be so ? " he asked. " Do we — mere men — 
give power to the Divine revelation we proclaim ? 
Is God's sacred word made effectual or ineffectual, 
at our will and pleasure? Or is it not, rather, true, 
that even 6 Paul,' one of the greatest Apostles, c may 
plant,' and ' Apollos,' an eloquent man and mighty 
in the Scripture 6 may water,' while it is God only 
c who giveth the increase ? ' And yet, how great a 
marvel is sometimes made of the fact that good 
effects flow from the preaching of those whom we 
believe to possess no authority from the Lord Jesus 
to minister in holy things. But where is the won- 
der ? Will the world never learn that it is God's 
word which saves the soul, and not the earthen 
vessels in which it is contained ? Will men never 
come to understand that Divine truth may have 
effect on the human heart, though spoken by any 
man, woman, or child, by clergy or laity, by friend 
or foe, by those who have pure motives in proclaim- 
ing it, and by those who do not profess Christ at 
all, but wickedly sit in the seat of the scorner ? " 

" Stop a minute, and stick a pin there," exclaimed 



The Priest and the Neophyte. — Concluded. 135 

Hardpan, impatiently, and with a most radiant face. 
" Why, don't you see that's just what I've been 
saying all along? One minister's tongue is as good 
as another's, and that too by your own confession. 
No matter what they're called, so they preach the 
Gospel. And then, I ask you, and I defy you to 
get round it, what advantage have you Episcopals 
over other people ? And what use is there in Bish- 
ops and their ordination ? " 

" To this, I make answer," replied the Doctor, 
without, pausing a moment, " by applying the words 
of an Apostle, — c Much every way ; chiefly because 
unto them were committed the oracles of God.' The 
Gospel is truly ' the power of God unto salvation ' ; 
but this is only in so far as it is the pure Gospel ; 
for if it should degenerate into 'another gospel,' 
there is no promise of such happy results. How 
then was it to be preserved pure ? Did God inter- 
pose for this object ? Undoubtedly. If revelation 
had been committed to the keeping of men at large, 
it would soon have been lost, or mingled inseparably 
with human tradition. But God gave His word to 
the Church, and raised up an order of men, and 
anointed them with the Holy Ghost, and promised 
to be with them and their successors to the end of 
the world, — men who were to carry down the true 
faith, or (in your own words,) the ' real Gospel,' to 
all future generations ; and by them the word was 
to be spoken in love, but still with a peculiar degree 
of authority also, inasmuch as they were Christ's 



136 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

authorized ambassadors, — His agents on earth to 
teach, to rule, to admonish, to dispense the holy 
Sacraments, and to do all such things as were need- 
ful for the edifying of his sacred body, the Church. 
To them He said, ' Whatsoever ye shall bind on 
earth shall be bound in heaven ; and whatsoever ye 
shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.' But 
He committed these awful powers and privileges to 
none besides the Apostles and those following in 
their line. These were to act ' in Christ's stead,' and 
to exercise 1 the ministry of reconciliation,' to ' hold 
forth the word of life,' to be ' the salt of the earth,' 
6 the light of the world,' the 'overseers' of God's 
heritage, the stars on the mystical candlesticks, the 
6 angels of the Churches,' and the men who, though 
possibly poor and despised, were invested with 
Heaven's own authority to fulfil His high commis- 
sion, — ; Go ye into all the world, and make dis- 
ciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; 
teaching them to do all things whatsoever I have 
commanded you.' The preaching of the Gospel 
was thus not the whole, but only one part of their 
duty. But it is sufficient now to say that they were 
to bear forward the torch which was to kindle light 
in all the world. If the Church were not thus the 
'Witness and Keeper' of Holy Writ, how soon 
would the blessed Gospel perish from off the 
earth ! " 

" And so it's your notion, I suppose, that, if it 



The Priest and the Neophyte, — Concluded. 137 

hadn't been for the Church, as you understand it, 
we should have had no real Gospel ? " 

" Certainly. And if the Church in all its branches 
were now suddenly destroyed, Christianity would 
soon become extinct." 

" I don't believe any such thing ; for even a bat 
might see that if all the Episcopals were gone, still 
the other denominations would keep it up." 

" Just as long," said Dr. Penrose, " as floating 
planks would keep up anything in a storm, after the 
ship had sunk." 

This was too much for Hardpan. Baffled and 
exposed at every turn he had taken, all that re- 
mained for him was to exclaim : — " Oh, the bigotry 
of the human heart, and the depth of Satan's de- 
lusions ! Nothing but Church, and Bishops, and 
Priests, and all that, instead of Christ and a free 
salvation ! When will the Lord raise up another 
Jonah, or somebody like Martin Luther, to shake 
up the nations, and smite the ten-horned beast ! 
What will become " 

But he was abruptly checked in his harangue by 
the Rector, who with good reason began to be 
weary of dealing with a " convert " of so per- 
verse and petulant a disposition. Suspecting at 
once what turned out eventually to be the truth of 
the case, he laid his hand gently on Hardpan 's arm, 
and, with a look that struck even that contemptuous 
sinner to the heart, said, " My dear Sir, after such 
assertions as you have just made, permit me simply 



138 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



to ask whether you have ever read the 1 Book of 
Common Prayer ' ? " 

With some hesitancy and shame, the confession 
was drawn from him, at last, that he had not. 

" Have you ever employed yourself in a diligent 
and devout study of such works as are intended to 
illustrate the Articles of the Christian Faith, as held 
and taught by the Church ? " 

" Why, as to that," said he, with more confidence, 
" I told you before that I know the Bible, and have 
made notes on it. And I have dipped a good deal 
into Scott's Commentary; besides reading a lot of 
things published by the different Tract Societies." 

" Have you read anything on the constitution 
and history of the blessed Redeemers Church and 
the nature of the Christian Ministry ? " ' 

" Well, I can't say that I have, and my time's too 
precious. I don't think such reading amounts to 
much, if one's any way spiritual-minded. But now 
I think of it, I did read a pamphlet or two against 
the new-fangled Popery, which you know, was 
fetched in by them Oxford men some years ago, 
and a pretty set they are. But what are you going 
to ask next ? " 

" I may trust, I suppose, that, as you came here 
with the express purpose of receiving baptism," 
added Dr. Penrose, in the most searching tone, "and 
(as I understand,) you expect to be admitted to the 
holy Communion, you have, of course, diligently, 
deliberately, and in the fear of God, prepared your- 



The Priest and the Neophyte, — Concluded. 139 

* self for the previous rite of Confirmation ; and have 
applied yourself to an examination of the nature 
of the Christian Sacraments; and have learned, in 
particular the great peril of the unworthy receiving 
of the holy Communion." 

To this Hardpan made answer : — " I know enough 
about the thing to satisfy my conscience, at any 
rate ; for, if a man has vital piety, and his heart is 
in it, it doesn't matter a great deal, after all, about 
these outward ordinances, though they're well enough 
in their place, I suppose." 

" I warn you, Sir," was the Rector's emphatic and 
earnest reply, " to distrust anything under the name 
of piety \ which encourages or tolerates a contempt 
of the most sacred institutions of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, before whom you and I must one day stand, 
to give an account, not only for the issue of this 
day's conversation, but for the use or neglect of the 
gracious means He has afforded to help us on to- 
ward His heavenly kingdom. And I most seriously 
advise you to enter with deeper solemnity into an 
examination of your motives in thus presenting 
yourself for admission into the fold of Christ, — a 
fold of which you have confessed your ignorance, 
more than intimated your dislike, and avowed your 
determination not to submit to its teaching and dis- 
cipline." 

" That is to say," said the indomitable Hardpan, 
" I will not submit to the intolerance of you 
priests" 



140 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



" There is written, Sir," replied the Doctor, " in 
what you have well called the ' blessed Bible,' this 
plain command, ' Obey them that have the rule over 
you, and submit yourselves ; for they watch for 
souls as they that must give account.' We never 
go beyond this. And now let me say that it would 
be a happy thing for you, if you could reverently, 
and with the serious humility of a man whose life is 
on the wane, commit yourself to the kind maternal 
care of that Church, which the Redeemer bought 
with his own most precious blood. To aid you in 
approaching such a decision, I offer you my best ser- 
vices and prayers, if you judge them worth accepting. 
The use of the parish library and of my own, you 
shall gladly have ; and there are not a few per- 
sons in my flock on whose brotherly-kindness, sym- 
pathy, advice, and love, I am sure you may safely 
count." 

" Sir," said he, " you're very kind indeed, and 
considerably pathetic. I thank you for your offer, 
and I think there's some good in you, after all. It's 
likely too that you've said some things that you 
wouldn't have said if the Lord had given you more 
light. But it may be as well for you to know, once 
for all, that you've made a great mistake this time, 
and have lost your chance ; for, mind this, / ant not 
the man to be caught ! " and, after the usual parting 
ceremonies, which the Doctor did not refuse him, 
he closed his first and last visit to the parsonage, 
with an expression of countenance between a scorn- 



The Priest and the Neophyte. — Concluded. 141 

ful smile and a malicious frown, and was soon far on 
his way to Fairgrove. 

Six months after this interview, Dr. Penrose 
accidentally learned that his intractable visitor had 
lost all hope of finding a Church where the " real 
Gospel " was preached, and perfect liberty of opinion 
allowed. As a last resort, he fitted up a spacious 
room in his house for Sunday services ; and with a 
congregation formed of his own servants and neigh- 
bors, took the full benefit of his liberty in preaching 
a " gospel " of which no Apostle or Saint had ever 
heard. It was, therefore, a prudent thing on the 
part of Hardpan, to ridicule Apostolic Succession 
and ancient Creeds, as he did ; for, if his own doc- 
trine had to be proved by lineal descent from the be- 
ginning, its origin could be referred to no other than 
Judas Iscariot. 



CHAPTER X. 



FAITH, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS. 

THESE three words, rightly understood, mean 
very different things ; and the oversight of 
this distinction is one of the main causes of that 
cloudiness which has overspread much of the relig- 
ious thought of the present age. Faith is a strong 
and vital principle resting on the eternal foundation 
of God's word, and therefore authoritative. Views 
are the impressions we derive from a survey of 
things, and may possibly have their issue in faith, 
or leave us in uncertainty. Opinions are floating 
and variable judgments arising from each man's own 
" views " of things, and having only such a degree 
of authority as he himself chooses to allow them.* 

* For example ; several men stand gazing at a church- 
spire. Each one thus takes his view of it, and then ex- 
presses his opinion as to its height. It is simply possible 
that some one of their opinions may be right j but it is far 
more probable that they are all wrong. They are merely 
guesses, conjectures, or judgments based upon nothing bet- 
ter than each man's ability to measure a given space by the 
eye alone. While they are gazing, the architect himself joins 
their company, and tells them authoritatively that the exact 



Faithy Views, and Opinions. 143 



In religion, faith always imposes obligation ; while 
views and opinions may, or may not, enforce spirit- 
ual or moral action. Faith in Divine revelation 
compels and inclines me to lead a " godty, righteous 
and sober life ; " but views and opinions concerning 
that revelation, being chiefly intellectual, do not 
necessarily bring me under the bonds of obedience. 
Faith, therefore, is one thing, and opinion quite 
another. Faith is the superior, divine, and fruitful 
principle ; while opinion is inferior, human, and in 
itself, barren of spiritual fruit. 

The evil results of this blending together of two 
or three different operations of the mind or soul, are 
everywhere seen. Within the Church, they are always 
distinct and separate ; there is room and salutary 
exercise for both ; and their respective domains will 
be stated and illustrated further on. But the point 
here to be emphasized is, that when the opinions, 
speculations, and theories, of fallible men, are made 
the test by which Divine truth is to be judged, it 
follows by necessity that the foundations of all right 
faith are undermined, and the supports of all right 
morality are subverted. For, if every man may rely 
on his own conceptions of Divine things as the ulti- 
mate test of revealed truth, then that truth must 
lose all objective and authoritative character ; and, 

height of the spire is so many feet and inches. This settles 
the matter. The architect knows what he affirms ; the ob- 
servers take him at his word ; and by this act oifaith ac- 
cept a fact of more value than any of their opinions. 



144 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



under such a loss, it can no longer be the great en- 
lightener and purifier of the human soul.* 

Nor is this all ; for the question will here natu- 
rally arise, whether the name of u religion " can prop- 
erly be given to that which does not bind a man to 
believe and do certain things on an authority outside 
of himself. No one, it may be supposed, will deny 
that a religion without a God is an absurdity, a 
mere pretension, a sham, a thing more illogical and 
monstrous than idolatry itself. But there is no sub- 
stantial difference between this and a religion with 
a, God, whose authority and words are only allowed 
to rule a man's belief and conduct so far as they 
may be consonant with that man's own indepen- 
dently formed opinions. For, those opinions, when 
traced to their root, will be found essentially Atheis- 
tic ; because it is impossible to believe that such a 
Being as the All-wise God even exists, if we deny 
that His authority is supreme and final. A religion 
with a God thus dethroned is certainly not the reli- 
gion of Christ, though it may sometimes be clothed 
with Scriptural phrases, and adorned with Script- 

* " To allow the liberty to dispute the fundamental doctrines 
which the Church Catholic has laid down, seems to us about 
as reasonable as if a teacher of plane astronomy were to allow 
his pupil to consider it an open question whether the sun 
moved round the earth or the earth round the sun ; or to 
take an illustration from a higher branch of the same subject, 
if a treatise of physical astronomy should allow its readers to 
remain in doubt whether the theory of gravitation were true or 
false." (Christia?i Remembrancer, vol. II. 1868. p. 363.) 



1 



Faith, Views, and Opiniofts. 



145 



ural imagery. Strip it of these, and nothing re- 
mains but a bundle of fragmentary notions, glittering 
truisms, scraps of philosophy, and shreds of moral- 
ity and sentiment, — a paltry reliance surely for the 
living, and a flaunting mockery for the dying. 

By way of offset to all this, it is often pleaded 
that human minds are so variously constituted, so 
unequal in their development, and so influenced by 
their environment, as to render uniformity of belief 
impracticable, and even undesirable. It has been al- 
leged that by the collision of many minds, the dis- 
covery of truth is facilitated; that sects and divisions 
are not only inevitable, but also useful in stimulat- 
ing spiritual life and action ; and that perfect agree- 
ment would find its issue in a stagnant Church. 

But these positions are refuted not only by nu- 
merous facts of history and the experiences of every- 
day life, but also by their explicit and oft-repeated 
denial in holy Scripture. No one doubts that there 
always will be a great diversity among men in 
mental constitution, education, hereditary prepos- 
sessions, social surroundings, and exposure to vari- 
ous other external influences. But to infer from this 
that no considerable number of men can think alike 
on things pertaining to the Christian Faith, is as 
absurd as to affirm that, for the same reasons, they 
must be unable to agree on anything else. We 
need to take only the merest glance at the world 
around us to see that men can and do agree on 
many things, in spite of all diversity in the quality 
7 



146 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



and working of their minds. For it is quite certain 
that there are many principles and facts in morals, 
philosophy, science, political economy, etc., about 
which the majority of civilized men are " of one 
mind and judgment." Millions of men in a king- 
dom or nation are inspired with the same patriotic 
feeling, and with the united devotion to their coun- 
try's laws and institutions. The whole mass of people 
in a nation are content to use one and the same 
language, and to observe the same social customs- 
All over the world Masonic, and other cognate 
societies, maintain the same rule, and agree in the 
same principles and usages. And both Scripture 
and Christian antiquity are evidence that a similar 
unanimity is possible in religion. At this very hour 
there are points on which the hundreds of millions 
in the Catholic Church are in substantial agreement, 
such as the inspiration of the holy Scriptures, the 
Apostolic origin of the Episcopate, the Lord's Day, 
Baptism and the holy Eucharist, to say nothing of 
the essential doctrines and facts of the Gospel as 
summed up in the Catholic Creeds. 

The opinion that men cannot think alike concern- 
ing religious truths is also at direct issue with holy 
Scripture, in which certain facts and doctrines are 
set forth as infallibly true, and therefore to be re- 
ceived by all men, without doubt or questioning. 
Our Lord's own words were these, " He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that 
believeth not shall be damned." 5. Mark xvi. 16. ; 



Faith, Views, and Opinions. 147 



in which declaration " believing " is not to be taken 
as a mere act of assent, but also a loyal and heart- 
felt reception of all that is revealed concerning our 
Lord's Person, mission and teaching. The Apostles 
also taught everywhere the same things ; and all 
the baptized were pledged and bound, by the very 
fact of their baptism, to be " of the same mind and the 
same judgment" Diversity of belief was inadmis- 
sible ; and every symptom of it was sharply rebuked ; 
because, as the original Revealer was Divine, so 
the things revealed, and everywhere taught in the 
Church, were absolute truths, and could in no sense 
be treated as speculative opinions. For this reason, 
no account was ever taken of the variety of men's 
judgments, prejudices, temperaments, and modes of 
thinking, when the positive truths of the Gospel 
were set before them for their acceptance or their 
rejection. Of course, great regard was had to the 
weakness and ignorance of many new converts, who 
needed instruction and patient catechizing even in 
first principles ; but in no case was the truth of God 
emasculated or retrenched, to bring it into conform- 
ity with the narrowness of their intellectual capaci- 
ties. Revelation, by its very nature, admitted of 
no capricious changes, modifications, abatements, or 
time-serving-glosses, either to meet the scruples of 
the philosopher or the stolidity of the rustic. There 
was only one Creed for all, — the same in substance 
throughout the world, and held without dispute by 
all the " faithful in Christ." When the great early 



148 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Councils were assembled, it was not their object to 
set forth new doctrine, but to define, express, con- 
firm, and defend, what had been everywhere believed 
front the beginning. And thus, for long centuries, 
Creeds and Councils, Bishops and priests, and the 
whole company of the faithful, were united in the 
vindication of the same holy Faith, and in working 
together for the prevention, exposure, and extirpa- 
tion of all contradictory or heretical opinions. 

This simple fact, then, is a sufficient refutation of 
the modern notion that men cannot think alike on 
religious matters ; for it shows that large bodies of 
men, as various as possible in mental traits, sympa- 
thies, educational bias, and religious predilections, 
may, through the power of the Divine Spirit and 
submission to authoritative teaching, be so impressed 
with the transcendent light of revealed truth, as to 
accept it most reverently " with one accord," and be 
brought to confess that the sources of religious discord 
are not in revelation itself, but in the large license 
and undisciplined use of tJie human reason and will. 

In answer to all this, it may be said, that there 
were probably in the ancient Church great diversi- 
ties of opinion, which did not show themselves on 
the outer surface, but were freely tolerated, and even 
held to be law T ful. 

This is undoubtedly true; and it is here stated 
for the very purpose of showing, as distinctly as 
possible, what it was that the Church and the Bible 
required all men to believe, and what it was that 



Faith, Views, and Opinions. 149 



was left free as matter of opinion. The Church has 
always made a broad distinction between the funda- 
mental truths of revelation, which every Christian 
is bound to believe, and those subordinate points 
which, not being asserted and clearly defined in 
holy Scripture, are therefore open to discussion and 
various shades of opinion. Much confusion has 
arisen even in the minds of sincere and faithful 
members of the Church, from the confounding 
together of these entirely different things. The 
Church requires uniformity of belief in those things 
which have been summarized in her orthodox 
Creeds. These are known as articles of the 
Christian Faith — the very essence and substance 
of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. But, 
outside of the Creeds and the doctrines implied in 
them, we enter that wide region in which numerous 
religious points, not essential to salvation, may be 
freely discussed and variously estimated by differ- 
ent minds — provided always, that the conclusions 
reached shall be in harmony w^ith the fixed belief 
and fundamental principles of the Church. This is 
the region of what is called religious or theological 
opinion. And as opinion is, in its very nature, uncer- 
tain and changeable, it is therefore confined to subjects 
which are external to the positive and settled Faith 
of the Church. Among these subjects are predesti- 
nation and grace, assurance of salvation, final per- 
severance, and numerous questions relating to the 
Sacraments, the inspiration of the Scriptures, the 



1 50 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

elements and modes of Divine worship, etc. On 
many of these subordinate points, various shades of 
opinion will be found even among those who firmly 
and undoubtingly believe every article of the Chris- 
tian Creeds; and, on the exercise of such opinions, 
the Church prefers rather to suggest and guide, 
than to interfere more directly, so long as the 
Faith itself is not endangered, or mutual charity sac- 
rificed. 

In matters of Faith, then, Christian men may be, and 
should be, " of the same mind." But in the inferior 
sphere of matters which the Church regards as non- 
essential, this oneness of thought has never been found 
practicable or necessary; and accordingly, it has never 
been exacted by the Church as a term of Communion. 

Through an oversight of this important distinction 
between Faith and Opinion, the Church has been 
accused on the one hand of unyielding severity and 
exclusiveness, and on the other of too great laxity 
in point of doctrine. It is very certain, however, on 
the contrary side, that the growing dissensions of 
modern times are chiefly attributable to the secta- 
rian error of blending together things which the 
Church has ever kept separate. It is owing to the 
error of incorporating into the Protestant Confes- 
sions of Faith many points fairly open to private 
opinion, and requiring belief in them, as if they were 
on the same plane with the ChurcJis Creeds, that so 
many sects have arisen to disfigure, oppress, and dis- 
tract the Christian world. The Church, on the con- 



Faith, Views, and Opinions. 151 



trary, requires from those coming to Baptism, no 
assent to any modern and changeable " Confession 
of Faith," but simply a belief in " all the articles of 
the Apostles' Creed," i.e., the great fundamental 
verities of the Christian religion. The Nicene Creed 
comes afterwards as a part of Morning and Evening 
Prayer, but more properly of the Office for Holy 
Communion ; but, at Baptism, Confirmation, and 
admission to Communion, all questions of doctrine 
on which the Church has not spoken positively, are 
left for diversity of judgment. 

It is, however, sometimes asserted that, besides 
the Creeds, the Anglican Church has set forth the 
" Thirty-nine Articles," as an authoritative summary 
of the Faith ; and that they are similar in origin, 
design, and use, to the " Confessions " of the various 
Protestant sects. This latter assertion, however, is 
an error; for the Articles, though including some 
few on matters of faith, are chiefly on minor subjects, 
and are not styled " Articles of Faith" but " Arti- 
cles of Religion" implying inferiority to the Creeds 
of the Universal or Catholic Church. The Articles 
are not, in themselves, of fundamental importance, 
(except the first five), nor are they absolutely neces- 
sary in all times and places. For the Anglican 
Church was more than a thousand years old before 
the Articles were drawn up ; and her existence as a 
branch of the Catholic Church is in no way depend- 
ent on their retention. They were framed in a time 
of long and perilous conflict with unbelief, misbelief, 



152 Episodes hi Clerical and Parish Life. 



and the distractions created by the animosity of 
Romanists on the one side, and of Protestants on 
the other. At such times a national Church may 
find it expedient to adopt extraordinary means, for 
her own defence under the pressure of unjust accusa- 
tion, and for the preservation of peace and confidence 
among her own Clergy and people. Other branches 
of the Catholic Church (the Gallican, for instance,) 
have done the same in times of severe trial from 
within, or of dangerous intrusion from without. 
The Church of Rome, as an entire body, did sub- 
stantially the same thing at the Council of Trent, 
and erred grievously in her mode of doing it, by 
adding to the settled Creed of the Church Catholic, 
twelve new articles, comprising decisions on matters 
which, till tlien, had been held simply as pious opin- 
ions. Not unlike this uncatholic proceeding of the 
Romish Church is the error of mingling truth and 
human opinions together in a Protestant " Confes- 
sion of Faith," and then enforcing them as terms of 
Communion. The "Thirty-nine Articles" occupy 
a position entirely different from this. For, with 
the few exceptions just noted, they touch only on 
points of local, temporary, and supplementary char- 
acter, and are open to revision or removal at the 
Church's pleasure.* This is not the case, precisely, 

* " They [the Articles] are to the Creeds what the bye-laws 
of a society are to the legal and settled rules of that society." 
{Dr. W. H. Mill, Introduction to Santa Clara on the Articles, 
by Rev. F. G. Lee, D.C.L.) 



Faith, Views y mid Opinions. 153 

with the Protestant Confessions. " If a Lutheran," 
says Dean Hook, " rejects the Lutheran Confession 
of Faith, or a Calvinist the Calvinistic system, the 
first ceases to be a Lutheran, and the second a Cal- 
vinist. The difference between these Confessions 
and the Thirty-nine Articles is apparent at once to 
those who pay attention to the subject. If Convo- 
cation were to reject the Thirty-nine Articles to- 
morrow, the Church of England would remain, as it 
has always been, a living body, having in that char- 
acter as much right to reject the Thirty-nine Articles 
in the nineteenth century, as it had to enforce them 
in the sixteenth." {Lives of the Archbishops of 
Canterbury, Vol. IV., p. 327, note.) It is, in fact, by 
its Confession, platform, or scheme of doctrine and 
order, that one sect is distinguished from another; 
but the appeal of the Church is (as it was also at the 
Reformation), not to humanly devised articles, but 
to Holy Scripture, and the doctrine and polity of 
the primitive Church. It is also to be noted that 
the Thirty-nine Articles were not received in the 
American Church till after long consideration and 
debate in our early Conventions. In this, as in all 
other points, the Church adheres to the old rule : — 
" In things necessary, unity ; in things doubtful, lib- 
erty ; and in all things charity." 

7* 



CHAPTER XI. 



SECTARIAN FOUNDATIONS UNSCRIPTURAL. 
THEN the originators of the denominations 



V V of English derivation finally separated from 
the Church, and formed themselves into distinct 
communities, it became necessary to defend their 
position against the charge of schism, by some line 
of argument which, if not convincing to others, 
would be at least satisfactory and quieting to them- 
selves. There were only two ways in which such a 
defence could be attempted ; 1st, by pleading the 
necessity of the case ; and 2d, by showing that, in 
all essential points, their communities were framed 
and ordered in conformity with holy Scripture, and 
were therefore true Churches of Christ. 

The plea of " necessity " was grounded on the as- 
sumption that though the Anglican Church had 
freed herself from Papal usurpation, yet she still 
retained in her polity, rites and ceremonies, customs, 
and objects of reverence, so many of the corruptions 
of the Church of Rome, that her Ministry had lost 
its primitive simplicity, her worship was overlaid 
with abuses, her discipline had become urtscriptural, 
and her spiritual life was so nearly extinct, as to 




Sectarian Foundations UnscripturaL 1 5 5 



vitiate or annul her claim to be a true branch of the 
Church of Christ. Separation was therefore deemed 
justifiable, if not even obligatory. 

The reply to all this is easy. It was the misfor- 
tune of the Puritans and the other separatists, that 
they had no clear idea of the Catholic Church, or of 
genuine Catholicity. In their view, Popish and 
Catholic were convertible terms ; and therefore 
their theories of Church reform made no distinction 
between Papal errors and certain fundamental prin- 
ciples and hallowed usages which the Church had 
inherited from a primitive age, when Popery was 
unknown. Instead of enquiring " reverently, dis- 
creetly, advisedly, soberly, and in the fear of God," 
whether this or that thing was, in itself pure, prim- 
itive, and conducive to holiness, (though subject 
to abuse,) they judged everything by a standard de- 
vised by themselves^ — a standard which, as time has 
proved, is destructive alike of truth and error.* As 

* " Because Papists have made too much of some things, 
Protestants have made too little of them. The Papists treat 
man as all sense ; and therefore, some Protestants would 
treat him as all spirit. Because one party has exalted the 
Virgin Mary to a divinity, the other can scarcely think of 
that most highly favored among women with common re- 
spect. The Papist puts the Apocrypha into his canon, — the 
Protestant will scarcely regard it as an ancient record. The 
Popish heresy of human merit in justification, drove Luther 
on the other side into most unwarrantable and unscriptural 
statements of that doctrine. The Papists consider grace as 
inseparable from the participation of the Sacraments, — the 



1 56 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



the case stood, the Church of England had not 
denied any point of the Christain Faith, nor added 
to it any one article ; she had not led her people 
into " peril of idolatry," nor imposed any new and 
burdensome terms of communion ; nor had she re- 
tained in her worship and formularies anything 
which could justly be accounted " superstitious or 
ungodly." As, then, no such charges could be 
brought against the Church, it is manifest that sep- 
aration was not a matter of " necessity," but simply 
an impatient, groundless, and ill-considered exercise 
of private opinion. 

The defense of the separation was therefore 
thrown on Scriptural grounds ; and in this exercise 
the pens of the most able dissenting writers have 
been employed from the 16th century to the present 
time, with an earnestness equalled only by the mag- 
nitude of the subject. 

In carrying on this work of defense, the separatists 
were not united even among themselves. On sev- 
eral points, (the Ministry, for instance,) there were 
important differences between the strict Presbyteri- 
ans and the Independents, or Congregationalists ; 
the former holding to an Apostolic Succession of 
Presbyteries, while the latter contended that each 
congregation was a complete " church " in itself, and 
competent to choose and ordain its own Minister. 

Protestants too often lose sight of them as instituted means 
of conveying grace." {Remains of Rev. Richard Cecil 
[Evangelical] p. 255.) 




Sectarian Foundations Unscriptural. 157 

Independently of these differences, there was, (as 
just stated,) one fundamental principle on which all 
these parties acted; and on this particular point 
some observations may now be made, by way of 
testing its validity, and showing its natural and in- 
evitable results. • 

The Protestant sects confidently asserted that 
their respective theories of the Church were derived 
from, and were in accordance with, holy Scripture ; 
that from this source alone their several models of a 
Christian Church had been drawn ; and that the 
" forms of government " which they had adopted 
were, (as nearly as could be,) such as existed when 
the Church was under Apostolic rule. By all these 
parties the appeal to Scripture was held to be the 
only true method of arriving at a complete and final 
settlement of the question. 

Now, at the very first glance, under the light of 
existing facts, it is evident that this appeal to Script- 
ure alone has not been successful. For, the rule, 
after a trial of three hundred years, has proved pow- 
erless in bringing all the parties to see and distinctly 
recognize that one visible Church of Christ of which 
the Apostles wrote, and in which all the faithful 
were united as one body, in the bonds of unity and 
concord. However highly the parties in question 
may extol the Bible as their " sole rule of faith and 
practice," and may imagine that they have re-pro- 
duced the Church as there depicted, yet, in the is- 
sue, we find that each party claims the right of so 



158 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



interpreting the rule as to bring it into accord with 
a theory already and independently formed, — a 
theory which thus takes the place of the rule, and 
annuls its obligation. In saying this, we do not 
impugn or question their reverence for holy Script- 
ure ; but still that reverence did not hinder them 
from interpreting and applying it after a fashion of 
their own. In so doing, the error was mainly intel- 
lectual, though conscience was often led astray in the 
urgency of debate. No one will deny that the bet- 
ter part of the separatists feared God, and intended 
to serve Him with a new and purer devotion ; and, 
notwithstanding their errors, they clung to their God 
and Saviour with all the sternness of a Puritan's 
love. When, therefore, they finally cut themselves off 
from the old Apostolic Church, and under the stress 
of the times rallied together to devise some plan, 
by which they might live in brotherly fellowship, 
they thought that they had found in the Bible, just 
such a model of the Church as coincided with their 
own opinions and desires, — a Church pure and sim- 
ple, without prelates or Bishops, without a priesthood, 
without a rich ceremonial, refined music, and sym- 
bolic ornamentation and vestments ; in short, with- 
out liturgies, holy-days, surplice, sign of the cross, 
or any other of those elements which they con- 
founded with Popery or paganism. But, in conse- 
quence of divisions among themselves, each party 
soon had a " Church " of its own, agreeing in some 
points with the others, but also with differences suf- 



Sectarian Foundations Unscriptural. 159 



ficiently serious to render communion and fellowship 
impracticable. This was simply the natural issue of 
their principles. If Scripture had been interpreted 
under the illumination cast upon it by the writers 
and historians of Apostolic and primitive times, the 
world would not now be wondering how there could 
be over a hundred "Scriptural" Churches, while 
our Lord and His Apostles knew only of one. 

In this position of things, then, we are brought 
face to face, as it were, with two very curious and ex- 
traordinary facts, which are these, viz., 1st, that (on 
the sectarian theory,) any number or company of 
Christian men, holding opinions peculiar to them- 
selves, may, on Scriptural grounds, renounce the 
authority of the existing, visible, or historical 
Church of which they are members, and form them- 
selves into an independent organization, sect, or de- 
nomination, claiming the name, rights and preroga- 
tives of a " Church," and asserting the possession of 
spiritual endowments, official powers, and pastoral 
authority, equal in all respects to those of the orig- 
inal Church. The 2d fact is this : — that those same 
Scriptures utterly deny any such liberty of separation, 
denouncing it as " carnal " and " sensual," and resist- 
ing even the earliest tendency to disunion as a sin 
deserving instant rebuke. In those Scriptures we 
read, in plainest terms, of the rise of a great 
kingdom or Church, long predicted by the prophets, 
founded by the Son of God Himself, and replen- 
ished with the richest gifts of the Holy Ghost, — a 



160 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



kingdom visible, endued with power, and incapable 
of destruction. Into this kingdom or Church were 
to be gathered all, of every nation and tongue, who 
should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be 
made heirs of eternal life. And, of this Divine In- 
stitution, unity was a cardinal and fundamental law, 
never willingly to be broken. Its vast and far-reach- 
ing purposes, as God's own agency for the regenera- 
tion of the whole world, and the subduing of " sin, 
Satan, and death," w T ere dependent for success on 
the conservation of its power under this bond of 
unity. And therefore, schism was always held to be 
equivalent to treason in the State, or mutiny in an 
army. It was a disorganizing principle, a foreign 
element thrown into the Church, to obstruct the 
work of God by the interference of human folly. 
Schism was an open resistance to the fulfilment of 
the Saviour's earnest prayer; and a dismemberment 
of His body, which is the Church. The whole 
burden of Scripture, as thoughtful sectarians them- 
selves now confess, is condemnatory of all schisms, 
dissensions, discordant parties, and warring sects, 
classing them not among " the fruits of the Spirit," 
but in the dark catalogue of " the works of the 
flesh." 

From this review of the case, it is clear that noth- 
ing can be more hopeless than an attempt to justify 
sectarianism by an appeal to the holy Scriptures. 

On the contrary side, " the holy Catholic Church " 
has ever claimed, and now claims, that in those 



Sectarian Foundations Unscriptural. 161 



holy Scriptures the vindication of her charter and 
title as the true Church of Christ, is complete and 
unanswerable. In no period of her long history has 
she ever lost consciousness of being that very same 
body which, in the sacred writings, bears the name 
of the " Church of the living God." 

There is another point which may here be worth 
noticing : viz., that if the sectarian theory of the 
Church is really derived from the Scriptures, that 
theory will of necessity correspond in all essential 
respects with the form, constitution, faith, worship, 
and peculiar genius and instincts, of the existing 
Catholic Church. But the very contrary of this is 
the truth, as is clearly evinced, not only by the 
existence of sects, but by their unfriendliness towards 
that branch of the Catholic Church, — the Anglican 
and her American daughter, — even though that 
branch is at this day more vigorous in spiritual life 
and enterprise than any other, either Oriental or 
Roman. This is a demonstration that the sectarian 
idea of the Church is at variance with that of the 
Christians of the Apostolic age. 

It is not a little remarkable that it should not 
have occurred to the founders of the Protestant 
sects, that, for the plainest of all reasons, the Apos- 
tolic Church itself was not founded upon the written 
word of God, — meaning, of course, the New Testa- 
ment. For, at the time when the Church was 
founded, the New Testament had not been zvritten. 
It is a simple fact that the Christian Church ex- 



1 62 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



isted and flourished in a large portion of the world, 
for a number of years before the Gospels, Acts, and 
Epistles were penned. The Church was founded, 
and clothed with all its powers, on the day of 
Pentecost, and proceeded at once to " convert the 
nations, far and nigh," while as yet neither Apostle 
nor Evangelist had written one line of their inspired 
books or letters. The several writings now collected 
and bound together under the name of the " New 
Testament," were in fact chiefly narratives and 
epistles written at various times during a period of 
more than half a century ; and these could not have 
been obtained, and read in a continued series, till 
long after the Gospel had been preached and the 
Church established in almost every part of the 
Roman empire. This is nothing more than plain 
historical fact, against which no opposing statement 
can have the least force. It is certain that neither 
S. Paul nor S. Peter ever sazv a New Testament ; 
and the same is true of the great multitude of those 
whom they converted to the Christian Faith.* 

* " The Christian Church must have taught for at least six- 
teen years without any writings of the New Dispensation to 
appeal to. People often talk in a lax manner, which seems 
to imply forgetfulness of this important fact. One might 
imagine, from their language, that after S. Paul had been 
struck down on the road to Damascus, his primary duty on 
the recovery of his sight must have been the study of the 
holy Gospels. They forget that at that period not one of the 
four Gospels had been published, and that the Apostle's own 
Epistle to the Thessalonians is most probably prior in point 



Sectarian Foundations Unscripiural. 163 

It was not, therefore, by the written Gospel that 
so many tens of thousands were converted, but by 
the living voice of the Church proclaming the news 
of salvation by that Gospel. For, though the 
several portions of the New Testament, as they suc- 
cessively appeared, were to be read in all the local 
churches or congregations, yet it is evident from the 
books themselves that those churches were already 
in existence, already holding " the faith once de- 
livered unto ' r them, and already endowed with the 
Ministry, the Sacraments, and all the elements 
of Christian worship and discipline. The Church, 
then, as a Divinely organized body or kingdom, was 
older than the writings forming the New Testament. 
But, in asserting this, we do not assert that it was 
older than the Faith recorded for safe-keeping in 
those writings. This Faith had from the beginning 
been preached, and everywhere made known by men 
who were commissioned to " go into all the world " 
and declare it. Hence the sacred writings, as they 
sprang up, were a posterior, and not an anterior, ele- 
ment in the development of the Church. They 
were the records or archives of the Church, written 
for the spiritual edification of the baptized ; and the 
Epistles are addressed, not to the world at large, but 

of date to any one of them." {Christian Remembrancer, 
vol II., 1868, p. 275.) 

"The Apostles preached before they wrote; and the 
primitive Bishops sat at their feet, antecedently to the recep- 
tion of the Epistles, or even of the Gospels." {Dean Hook.) 



1 64 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



to prominent local " churches " of the saints, or to 
persons already in " the household of faith." From 
all which it is clear that the Church was not founded 
on the Christian Scriptures, but that those Scrip- 
tures had their origin in the Church and were proofs 
of its previous existence. 

In that primitive age, the constitution, ministry, 
and official powers of the Church, could not possibly 
be otherwise than accordant with the statements of 
them in the written word ; and conversely, those 
statements, when brief or obscure, were illustrated 
and made clear by the merest glance at the great 
living Church, of which all Christians were mem- 
bers. For this reason, every modern theory of the 
Church which differs from the original Catholic 
model, must necessarily fail when tested by Scripture, 
even though it may be upheld by any amount of 
confident assertion and ingenious interpretation. Its 
claim to be " Scriptural " is invalidated by the sim- 
ple fact that it is a deviation from the form once for 
all impressed upon the Church by Divine wisdom. 

Turning now to the American (or " Protestant Epis- 
copal ") Church, it will be evident from even a brief 
study of her history, formularies, authoritative docu- 
ments, and controversies, that her position is not that 
of a mere religious society, sect, or denomination ; 
for, by no possibility can her principles and language 
be brought into harmony with the Church-theory of 
any Protestant sect, except by a violent wresting of 
them from their old and legitimate import. 



Sectarian Foundations UnscripturaL 165 



The American Church, disowning all modern 
theories about " Church-government," claims to be, 
on her part, thoroughly Scriptural ; because she is an 
integral part of that very Church which was organ- 
ized under the Apostles, — that " kingdom of God " 
which was destined to be through all ages the 
witness and dispenser of life and light to the 
world. It is a matter of undoubted history that in, 
or very near, the Apostolic age, the missionaries of 
the cross planted the Church in the British isles. 
From that beginning, the Church — reinforced and 
consolidated by the mission of Augustine in the 6th 
century — has maintained a continuous existence in 
England to the present day ; and through her, the 
American Church traces her descent from the primi- 
tive era. That the British Church in the early 
centuries differed not in nature and constitution 
from the Church now existing, is apparent from all 
history, and from the fact that British bishops were 
present in councils as early as the year 314. In 
those days there was no discrepancy between the 
Church and Scripture as to the nature, organic form, 
and government, of the kingdom of Christ. It was 
impossible in the nature of things, that there could 
be any disagreement between such an institution, 
and the records of those inspired writers who laid 
its foundations and reared its superstructure. And 
the idea of the " Church " as given in the New 
Testament, and visibly displayed by the Church 
itself in successive ages, is that which is everywhere 



1 66 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



prominent in the formularies and use of the Anglo- 
Catholic Church, whether in England and her Colo- 
nies, or in the United States. To the Creed-name 
of the Church, — " one, holy, Catholic, and Apos- 
tolic " — she affixes no new and popular sense, but 
adheres strictly to that which was universal in the 
days of the early Councils. This cannot be said 
of any of the non-episcopal sects, For, though in 
many of their Confessions of faith the words of the 
Catholic Creeds are retained, yet those words are in- 
vested with a new and uncatholic meaning.* In the 
primitive age, and in the early Councils, such a mean- 
ing would have been promptly rejected as novel, and, 
at the root, unsound and repugnant to Scripture. 
But the Anglican Church has resolutely adhered, — 
even in times of Papal oppression, trial, and perse- 
cution, — to the original and invariable sense which 
those Councils attached to the words descriptive of 
the Church. In this sense only, and not with any 
modern or time-serving qualification or gloss, does 
the American Church interpret the ancient title of the 
Church, and assert her own right to it by inheritance. 

* It is freely granted that the more orthodox denominations 
repudiate the popular idea that the Church of Christ has no 
definite boundaries or form, but embraces in one huge con- 
glomeration the voluntary societies of all who call themselves 
Christians. Their view, so far as it goes, is sound, Scriptural, 
and Catholic ; but they fail to see that, if fully carried out, 
it would extinguish all sectarian organizations; because those 
organizations themselves are violations of that law of unity 
which is a fundamental principle of the Church of Christ. 



CHAPTER XII. 

AN AGED LAWYER'S INVESTIGATIONS. 

IN days long gone by, when I resided in what is 
now the Diocese of Northern New Jersey, I 
had among my parishioners one who had passed his 
70th year before he became aware of the difference 
between the Church of God, and a voluntary relig- 
ious association or sect formed by the wisdom or 
unwisdom of man. He was a person of high distinc- 
tion in the legal profession, and was remarkable for 
his acuteness and patience in unravelling any knotty 
questions that came in his way, or were submitted 
to him for investigation after his retirement from 
the bench. Few lawyers of his day stood higher 
than he in forensic or general learning, extensive 
influence, or social position ; and fewer still were his 
equals in old school refinement, and in a winning 
suavity of manner. He was also a man of strong 
religious convictions, adorned by the serenity of a 
holy life ; and, from early age to the " three-score 
years and ten," he had been a firm and faithful up- 
holder of Presbyterian doctrine and institutions. 

At that late period of his life, a book treating of 
what are commonly known as " Church principles," 



i63 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



came into his hands ; and, on reading it, the effect 
— as he himself described it to me — was like the 
opening of a new world of ideas, which at once sur- 
prised and startled him. For the first time, a doubt 
regarding the certainty of his religious opinions 
sprang up in his mind, and it annoyed him exceed- 
ingly. It was as if he had discovered a flaw in the 
title-deeds of his estate; but he was sensible that 
it touched a point of far higher interest. The book 
before him was apparently truthful, calm in its tone, 
free from the acrimony of party- spirit, and brought 
before him an array of facts and important principles 
which, if well-grounded, would by necessity compel 
him to abandon his present sectarian position, and 
become thenceforth a faithful soldier in the army of 
Christ. It thus involved an issue which came upon 
the mind of this conscientious and able Presbyterian 
with all the force and suddenness of an event, never 
before contemplated, even as a possibility. But the 
more he read, and found in that reading an exact 
correspondence with holy Scripture, the more was 
his confidence undermined in the opinions which he 
had inherited from his sectarian ancestors; and, in 
the event he resolved, in the fear of God, to subject 
the evidence in his hands to a rigorous investigation, 
or (as he expressed it) " to probe the whole matter 
to the bottom," and that, too, without much delay. 

To this " probing " he brought all the forces of 
his mind, allowing neither pride, long-standing sym- 
pathies, the ties of party, or the probable rupture of 



An Aged Lawyer's Investigations. 169 

old friendships, to bias him in an investigation which 
touched so closely the very springs of his religious 
life. It was a labor of time, — a labor growing more 
and more absorbing, as he traced from its beginning 
the wonderful history of the one only Church of 
God, and found it still existing and flourishing, even 
(as it were) at his own door, and still holding out to 
all human souls the same pure doctrine, the same 
holy Sacraments, the same Ministerial Order and 
pastoral authority, which it possessed in the Apos- 
tolic age. The conclusion was reached, not by any 
sudden impulse, but deliberately, and after a minute 
and rigid scrutiny of the evidence before him ; and 
that conclusion he announced to me, with character- 
istic emphasis, in these words : — " Sir, I am perfectly 
satisfied." The nature of that satisfaction and its 
result, will readily be anticipated. At the first op- 
portunity afterwards, this venerable and patient 
searcher for truth was confirmed by Bishop George 
W. Doane, and was soon numbered among the 
most influential and resolute defenders of the faith 
and Church of Christ. 

Now what were the particular points or facts 
which our aged friend discovered in the course of 
his investigations ? This question I have not the 
means of answering in his own words ; but I am 
prepared to give, in substance, the conclusious at 
which he arrived. 1. He found that those familiar 
words in the Creed, — " one, holy, Catholic and Apos- 
tolic Church," mean something quite different from 
8 



170 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



an invisible Church, or a collective body of sects, 
or anything that is merely ideal and unsubstantial. 
2. That those words mean an organic body, visi- 
ble, real, substantial ; and as capable of verification 
by all men, as the existence and attributes of any 
earthly kingdom, institution, or social body. 3. 
That this body or Church is historical, having orig- 
inated with our Lord and His Apostles ; and that 
it is a permanent and self-perpetuating body, never 
to be destroyed, and never to lose its Divine author- 
ity and supernatural gifts. 4. That the true Church 
is, therefore, older than the Reformation, older than 
mediaeval times, older than the age of Fathers and 
Councils, and older even than the books of the New 
Testament ; for those books not only speak of it as 
already in full exercise of its powers, but also bear 
record of its origin and of its constitution and Faith. 
5. That this " Church " is " the kingdom of Christ 
which kingdom is the one visible organism on earth 
through which the Holy Spirit conveys to man- 
kind the benefits of Christ's Incarnation, His pre- 
cious Death, and glorious Resurrection. And, 6, 
that the ecclesiastical body popularly known in 
the United States as the " Protestant Episcopal 
Church," is one of the several branches of this orig- 
inal Church or kingdom of Christ ; having inherited, 
through the Apostolical Church of # England, the 
uncorrupted Faith and Order of the Gospel, and be- 
ing in unity with the primitive age by an unbroken 
line of succession. 



An Aged Lawyer s Investigations. 171 



In the broad light of these facts, derived as they 
were from Scripture, and from a review of the early 
and later history of the Catholic Church of England, 
the transition above mentioned from a modern sect 
to unity with "the body of Christ" was, in the 
judgment of my venerable friend, a thing of immedi- 
ate necessity. It was not even a matter of choice or 
preference, but a case of obedience — at any cost—to 
the plain demands of Scripture, conscience, and en- 
lightened reason. It was the abandonment of an 
untenable position, and the resort to one that was 
impregnable. For a schism is a disturbance and 
infraction of the settled Order of God's Church, 
and can only be excused as a temporary revolt against 
the imposition of unlawful terms of communion. A 
schismatical body which has not this plea for its 
vindication, but assumes for itself an independent 
and permanent existence, as if it stood on an equal- 
ity with a true branch of the Catholic Church, is 
thus, by its own act, in a position which the sacred 
writers denounce as carnal, sinful, and contrary to 
the mind of Christ. There is no ground either in 
Scripture or right reason for its existence, so long as 
the Church from which it stands separate is not 
chargeable with false doctrine, or the enforcement of 
unscriptural terms of communion. 

The Protestant bodies that sprang up in England 
at and after the Reformation, planted themselves 
ostensibly on the ground of opposition to " Popery," 
and also to what their leaders judged to be Popish 



1/2 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



elements still remaining in the doctrine, order, and 
worship of the Anglican or Anglo-Catholic Church. 
But the contest between that Church and the sects 
was, in reality, a contest of another and far more 
dangerous sort. It was a contest, on the one side, 
between the ancient Christianity of the Church, as 
it had been held by Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, 
Fathers, and Councils ■ and, on the other side, cer- 
tain new forms and theories of Christianity, which 
had arisen chiefly from the speculations of individual 
minds on the bare letter of Scripture.* The result 
of these speculative theories may be seen in the sec- 
tarianism of the present da}*, with its endless divi- 
sions and subdivisions, and the fearful obstacles 
which it has thrown in the way of the advancement 
of the true kingdom of Christ. Unity is the first 
law of God's Church, as it is also the indispensa- 
ble condition of perfect action in all organized bod- 
ies, moral systems, and even mechanical structures. 
The very terms and similitudes under which the 
Church is described, as, i.e., a human body, an army, 
a kingdom, a city, a house or temple, an ark or ship, 

* " The real contest throughout Queen Elizabeth's reign, 
was, whether the Church of England should remain Catholic, 
with the abolition of certain errors introduced during the 
lapse of ages, or whether it should be converted, under the 
pretext of reform, to a mere Protestant sect, such as Calvin 
had established at Geneva, and his followers had propagated 
in different parts of the Continent." [Lives of the Archbish- 
ops, by Bean Hook. Vol. v. p. 65.) 



An Aged Lawyer s Investigations, 173 



a tree, a vine, a net, the family of God, and the 
bride of Christ, all imply unity, and all therefore 
exclude the idea of separation or dismemberment. 
Of all this the Anglo-Catholic Church is fully con- 
scious ; and for that reason she disowns, repudiates, 
and constantly prays against all " false doctrine, 
heresy, and schism," as both sinful, and in these 
times inexcusable. The very presence in this land, 
or in any other, of a branch of the Catholic Church, 
which, on Scriptural and primitive tests, cannot be 
charged with corruption either in doctrine, order, or 
worship, deprives every sectarian organization of its 
one only plea for a separate existence. This must 
be felt and owned, before any project for the healing 
of divisions can have promise of success, 

A Church is not, as many thousands of well-mean- 
ing people have been taught, a mere company of 
human beings professing a similarity of belief in 
the Gospel, and voluntarily associated for purposes 
of worship and religious intercourse. This popular 
error hardly needs refutation ; for neither Presby- 
, terian, Lutheran, nor Baptist would, probably, admit 
the right of every such body to call itself a " Church." 
And yet, from beginnings, not very ambitious, have 
grown up various " denominations " claiming and 
using that exalted title. In the Divine order of 
things, the Gospel is inseparable from " the king- 
dom " which that Gospel proclaims. They co-exist 
as parts of one great system, and each comes to dis- 
order and ruin when separated from the other. For 



1/4 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

the Church is an organization which has its source 
of life in the Incarnation of the Son of God. If 
Christ had not come in the flesh, there could not 
have been on the earth such an institution as the 
Christian Church. At the very root of that Church 
is this union of Divinity and humanity in one Per- 
son, never to be separated. And from this fact of 
the Incarnation grows the possibility of man becom- 
ing a "partaker of the Divine nature," by a new 
birth " of Water and of the Spirit," which consti- 
tutes him a member in "the body of Christ," to be 
hereafter nourished with His " most precious Body 
and Blood." The Church is thus united both to 
the humanity and the Divinity of the Redeemer ; 
and this union can never be broken except by vol- 
untary and unrepented sin after baptism. 

The wide difference between the Christian Church 
and a mere company of men professing belief in the 
Bible, but still not in actual union with that Church, 
may be inferred from almost any page of the New 
Testament. " I am the vine," said our Lord, and 
"ye are the branches." Now, men are not such 
branches by nature. They have no living union 
with the vine. They cannot graft themselves into 
it. They can become such branches only by a super- 
natural process, i.e. y by sacramental union effected in 
baptism. Our Lord is also described as the " Head " 
of the Church, which is " His body." But, by 
nature, men are not members of that body. They 
have no part in it, nor can they come into union 



An Aged Lawyer's Investigations. 175 



with the Head by any act — mental, or otherwise — 
of their own. It is Christ's body ; and no new 
member can be added to it, except (as before) by 
supernatural grace. Again, Christ is also repre- 
sented as a " Rock ; " and the Church as a vast and 
beautiful building erected on it. On this Rock 
stands th£ secondary foundation of Apostles and 
Prophets ; and above this, the great edifice formed 
of innumerable " lively stones." But no man origi- 
nally belongs to, or forms a part of, this building. 
Nor by any power of his own, or by any acts of his 
own mind and will, can he insert himself into its 
walls, and thus come into union with the eternal 
Rock at its base. God only can do this, and His 
act is an exercise of supernatural power through the 
instrumentality of baptism. " As many of you as 
have been baptized into Christ \ have put on Christ." 
{Gal. iii. 27.) For this reason, the Apostles were 
sent both to preach the Gospel, and to carry " the 
laver of regeneration " into all the world. And thus 
it was that those warriors of the faith went into all 
nations, bearing the banner of "Christ crucified, ,, 
delivering men from " the power of darkness," and 
translating them into the kingdom of God's dear 
Son. 

These ideas of the Church, though very far from 
being popular, have nevertheless taken strong hold 
on thoughtful minds. They have already borne fruit 
not only in the voluntary return of great numbers 
to " the household of faith " which their forefathers 



176 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



forsook, but also in a wide-spread conviction even 
among sectarians themselves, of the error and the 
disastrous consequences of disunion. It is a signifi- 
cant fact that the enormity of the evils growing out 
of the present divided state of Christendom is can- 
didly admitted by thousands of enlightened minds 
in the older Protestant denominations, There are 
not to be found any more striking statements of 
those evils, than such as have been penned of late 
years by able and impartial writers, whose position 
in sectarian bodies qualifies them to depict with 
force and intelligence the fundamental defects of 
their own systems.* Such men have grown weary 

* Testimonies on this point are abundant and well known. 
The following quotation from a work of Dr. J. W. Nevin 
(Mercersburg), on " The Spirit of Sect and Schism." exhibits 
the evils of disunion in stronger terms than those usually 
employed by Churchmen themselves: — 

" It is a striking, though most sad, illustration of the inward 
falsehood of the Sect system, as now described, that in most 
cases the original grounds of separation, with the bodies thus 
divided, have lost, to a great extent, frequently indeed alto- 
gether, the interest which they had in the beginning ; while 
notwithstanding the door remains just as much closed as 
ever, in each case, against reconciliation and union. Witness 
the fragments of the Scotch secession, mechanically trans- 
planted to this side of the Atlantic. Witness the old antag- 
onism of Lutheran and Reformed, as still kept up in the Amer- 
ican German Church, while yet the Lutheran Confession, 
for the most part, has utterly surrendered its own original 
principle, and swung clear over the Calvinistic line itself on 
the opposite side. Is -Methodism any longer faithful to its 



An Aged Lawyer's Investigations. 



177 



and heart-sick in trying to reconcile Christian unity 
with partisan estrangements, and to cultivate broth- 
erly concord in the midst of strife and division. 
The obstacles are more than they have power to re- 
first idea and design ? And then as regards the mass of our 
more upstart native Sects, how few of them, if they ever had 
any intelligible, distinctive theory to begin with, can be said 
to know or seriously care what it was, at the present time ? 
It is the curse of sectarianism indeed that it cannot be truly 
historical ; whilst, at the same time, history is the only en- 
during form of life; 66 das Fertige ist das Todte" — what is 
done is necessarily also dead. The Sect life, sundering itself 
from the general consciousness of the Church (uncatholic), 
may start with vast show of spiritual freshness and vigor- 
like a divergent stream from the Euphrates or Tigris — but 
only, if it continue in such separate course, to lose itself ul- 
timately in the sand, or settle into some stagnant pool, from 
which it can never afterwards accomplish its escape. It 
will not do to say : See how these Sects love one another, 
in the face of all their rivalry and outward separation ! The 
'invisible' unity, we are told, is something deeper and 
stronger, than the denominational lines and landmarks that 
challenge the eye of sense. But if it be so, why should it 
not have force to make itself visible ? Or is it only that which 
is comparatively weak and partial, in our interior life, that 
can be expected thus to clothe itself with corporeity and out- 
ward form ? Alas, there is palpable contradiction, and 
gross hypocrisy, in the whole pretence. To make the One, 
Holy, Catholic Church, a sheer invisibility, is just to convert 
it into an idealistic, Gnostic abstraction. Why not remand 
the Sect consciousness itself, into the same shadowy realm ? 
Why not give us an invisible Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, 
Methodism, as well as an invisible Church Catholic ? " 
8* 



178 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



move ; and God's help cannot consistently be asked 
in support of schism. And so, they are longing for 
certainty and repose ; longing for the true " king- 
dom of God ; " longing, in short, for the visible, tan- 
gible counterpart of that Church whose form is al- 
ready pictured on their imaginations and lovingly 
enshrined in their hearts. 

It is easy, then, to account for the constant stream 
of secession from the sects, which has been flowing 
on for years past, when it is considered that there 
stands before men, in this land, a branch of that 
very same visible Church which began at Jerusa- 
lem : — that it exists, grows, and flourishes as the 
Divinely appointed "Witness and Keeper" of the 
truth ; and that its outward and merely secular des- 
ignation of " Protestant Episcopal " does not affect 
its inherited right to place and title in the " Holy 
Catholic Church" And this very Church, which 
the old Puritans denounced as corrupt, Popish, and 
unchristian, is now the refuge in which their de- 
scendants are finding safety from heresy, spiritual 
tyranny, and the pseudo-Christianity of an irreverent 
and speculative age. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



LINES OF TRANSMISSION. 

\/l 7 ^ ^ ac ^ an ot *dination last Sunday," said 
V V one ; " and the Bishop preached. But 
it is a pity that we can't have an ordination sermon 
without that old story of Apostolic Succession be- 
ing thrust upon us." It was an " old story " indeed ; 
and therein lay its value. A new story on that subject 
would be a fiction, a blunder, and an anachronism, 
or rather, an impossibility. For, neither the Chris- 
tian Ministry nor the Christian religion can be reck- 
oned among the products of the present age. W e 
have received both the one and the other through 
numerous parallel lines of transmission from their 
original sources, — which sources lie far back in the 
ages. It is an old story, but a true one, that eighteen 
centuries ago, the Ever-blessed Son of God founded 
a Church, which was to live forever, and to be the 
centre of spiritual life and moral renovation' to all 
the nations of the earth. Before He ascended to 
heaven, He committed to His Apostles the rule, the 
teaching, the care, and the perpetuation, of this 
Church, till He should appear again, coming on the 
clouds of heaven. But as these Apostles, like all 



1 80 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



other men, were mortal, while the Church itself was 
immortal, it was provided that the ministerial au- 
thority lodged in the Apostles, should be capable of 
transference to other chosen men, who, in like man- 
ner, should transmit it to others, and thus secure to 
the Church in all future ages, the same rule, the 
same Faith, and the same Divine gifts which it 
possessed in the Apostolic age.* 

It needs, therefore, no argument to show that if 
the Apostles had not appointed and qualified cer- 
tain men as their successors, no one in after ages 
would ever have heard an]/ " old story " about such 
a succession ; for the Church would have languished 
and died out very soon after S. John, the last of 
those Apostles, had rested from his labors. And 
further, if those successors whom the Apostles 
really did appoint, had not ordained others in the 
same manner, to perpetuate and extend the minis- 
try, there would have been no Bishops in these days 
to preach about Apostolic Succession, or to convey 
to others the ministerial commission, by the Word 

* " As Christ was sent by the Father, so He sent the Apos- 
tles ; as the Apostles were sent by Christ, so did they send 
the first race of bishops ; as the first race of bishops was 
sent by the Apostles, so they sent the second race of bish- 
ops ; the second, the third ; and so down to our present bish- 
ops ; who thus trace their spiritual descent from Saint Peter 
and Saint Paul, and prove their divine authority to govern 
the Churches over which they are canonically appointed to 
preside." (Lives of the Archbishops, by Dea?i Hook, vol. iv., 
p. 203.) 



Lines of Transmission. 



181 



and the laying-on of hands. That, indeed, is the 
whole matter in a nutshell. But, simple as it 
seems, the public mind has not yet grasped it ; nor 
so far apprehended its importance as to check all 
disposition to speak lightly of it as a mere myth, an 
ecclesiastical figment, or an absurdity " fast dying 
out." For this reason, something more may here be 
said by way of elucidation. 

It is now near upon 1800 years since the last of 
the Apostles died. While they were living there 
could be no dispute about the validity of their ordi- 
nations, or the ordinations of those to whom they 
committed the power to ordain. But we moderns 
cannot leap over that vast tract of time as with a 
single bound, and place ourselves in the position of 
the early believers, who were taught by men who 
had seen the Lord, and been commissioned by Him. 
We cannot take our Candidates for Orders to 
S. Peter and S. Paul, nor to S. John in the isle of 
Patmos or in the city of Ephesus. Those eighteen 
centuries separate us as effectually from the personal 
presence of the men who had their commission di- 
rectly from the " King of kings, and Lord of lords," 
as the broad ocean separates us from the empires of 
Europe and Asia ; unless^ indeed, the distance be 
traversed by some tangible and unbroken line, like 
an Atlantic cable, affording to us an easy and avail- 
able communication. In the post-Apostolic age the 
line of succession was a very short one, having but 
a few links or sections. As time went on new links 



1 82 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



were added, and the line of transmission became 
what it has been in c enturies past, what it is now, 
and what it is destined to be in all future ages. Its 
existence is as certain as the existence of the Bible ; 
and its permanence is as sure as the permanence 
of the Christian Faith ; for both the Bible and the 
Faith have reached us through this same channel of 
communication. It is also to be noted, that in the 
Catholic Church alone we* have such a line of trans- 
mission in its integrity ; and without that line there 
would be no visible Church ; because the life or death 
of that Church depends, for many of its essential ele- 
ments, on this fact of succession from Christ, through 
the Apostles. In this mode, and no other, we have 
receive d the Bible, the Creeds, the Sacraments, and 
almost ail we know about the Christian religion. 
From the very beginning there has been in the his- 
toric Church, a succession, without intermission, of 
doctrine, preaching, worship, baptisms, Eucharists, 
Lord's-days, festivals, fasts, and corporate life. And, 
co-existent with all these, there has been a Ministry, 
or Priesthood, which has invariably accounted for its 
existence and authority in no other way than by 
what we now call Apostolic Succession. Outside of 
this succession from Christ the great high-Priest, the 
Church never conceived it possible (except by mir- 
acle) for even the holiest of her sons to " take part 
in this Ministry," or to obtain valid credentials as 
an " ambassador of Christ." For, in Christ's king- 
dom, as in every other, the authority of an ambassador 



Lines of Transmission. 



i8 3 



comes by transmission from the throne ; and not by 
popular nomination, choice, election, or acquiescence.* 
Now, it was the most natural thing in the world, 
that the Bishop, as aforesaid, should touch upon 
Apostolic Succession in his sermon, as we infer that 
he did. For, if Apostolic Succession were merely an 
" old story," the ordination might as well have been 
done by the Rector, or by one of the church-war- 
dens, or the sexton, as by the Bishop. But there 
was a difference ; and it was a difference not arising 
from superior education, rank, talents, and influence ; 
for a man may have all these without being a 

* " If we stop short of Christ, the Supreme Head of His 
Church, we have no foundation on which to rest, nor any 
source from which to derive any spiritual power at all. Every- 
thing will be left vague and uncertain. If a man preach, who 
sent him ? {Rom, x. 15.) If he administer the Sacraments, 
who commissioned him ? If he take upon him the govern- 
ment of the Church, who authorized him ? If you say, the 
people ; Whence did the people get their power ? If you 
say, from God ; produce the commission. If you say, from 
nature ; then plainly not from Christ. Are the doctrines we 
preach, the doctrines of nature ? the Sacraments we admin- 
ister, the Sacraments of nature ? the Church we govern, the 
Church of nature f While the doctrines are Christ's doc- 
trines, the Sacraments Christ's Sacraments, and the Church 
Christ's Church, the ministers must be Christ's ministers, 
and derive their authority from Him, or they have no right 
to preach His word, and administer His Sacraments, or gov- 
ern His Church, be their pretentions to powers from nature, 
derived through the people, ever so great, or ever so strongly 
asserted." (Bishop Seabury^s Sermons, vol. i.,ft. 40.) 



1 84 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Bishop ; or he may be a Bishop, though neither a 
scholar nor a man of refinement. And hence the 
Bishop did well in magnifying his office, as S. Paul 
had done long before him. How, indeed, did the 
Right Reverend preacher come to be a Bishop at 
all ? and how came he to have more spiritual au- 
thority than the vestry-man, the organist, the bell- 
ringer, or the wives and daughters of any of 
them, but through this same thing called " Apos- 
tolic Succession ? " It could come in no other way 
that we know of, except (as I have just said,) by a 
miraculous intervention. It surely could not come 
by a mere election ; for votes, in such a case, even 
if there were ten thousand of them, could convey 
no spiritual gifts or power, they would merely imply 
the consent or the approval of the voters. Authority 
to act " in Christ's stead," and the right to rule and 
govern in " the kingdom of God," are not derived 
from human votes, nor are they conferred by any 
other exercise of merely human power. The affirm- 
ative vote of a whole nation could not change a lay- 
man into even a deacon in the Church of God ; but 
such a deacon can be made by anyone Bishop, even 
against the force of a negative vote from the whole 
population of the globe. Such is the difference be- 
tween a perpetuated Divine commission, and the ex- 
pedients to which modern sectarianism resorts to 
supply the disastrous loss of that commission. 

Still, there is nothing in Apostolic Succession so 
mysterious, perplexing, or fanciful, as to give any 



Lines of Transmission. 



colour of reason to the popular opposition to it. It 
is simply an application of the old and well-known 
principle of continuity ', or the law of cause and effect, 
to the Christian Ministry. Such continuity we can 
trace in a thousand things with which all men are 
familiar. The idea of succession is involved in the 
present existence of anything which began existence 
in time past, whether near or remote; or in the 
present action of any force which received its first 
impulse ages ago. Every living body has its origin 
in a living body before it ; and that, in like manner, 
in one anterior to it — thus forming a chain or line of 
living bodies, which runs on into the past, till we 
get back far enough in thought to reach the original 
act of creation. There is not a human being now liv- 
ing who is not thus connected, by an unbroken suc- 
cession of preceding lives, with the first parents of our 
race. And thus every man may see in himself the 
result of a succession much longer than that of which 
we have been speaking ; and, this succession may go 
on, through his children, and their posterity, for an 
indefinite time in the future. It is the same thing 
also among social or corporate bodies of all kinds ; for 
they maintain their existence and peculiarities by 
a continuous succession of members, officers, priv- 
ileges, etc., under an original constitution or charter; 
and the powers belonging to such bodies can only 
be verified and exercised by virtue of that succession. 

The Church, therefore, in asserting what is im- 
plied in Apostolic Succession, merely asserts the 



1 86 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



truth of her own claims to be the Church, and that 
she inherits by regular transmission the attributes 
and spiritual powers belonging to that Church. That 
her existence as an organized body dates from the 
Apostles' days, is a simple historical fact which has 
no necessary connection with High, Low, or Broad, 
Church opinions, or with Popeiy, Protestantism, 
Rationalism, or any sect or " ism " whatever. Like 
any other historical fact, it lies open to the judgment 
of all men, whether Christians, Jews, Mahometans, 
heretics, or infidels. But it is impossible to read 
Church-history without reading at the same time 
this "old story " of Apostolic Succession. Face to 
face it meets us everywhere — in all times and in all 
lands. It was a line, the numerous strands of which 
ran out over all the world long ago ; and have, in 
these last days, reached every corner of the land in 
which we live. By one or other of those strands, 
every Bishop in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, 
holds a direct lineal relation to the Apostles, and 
becomes a sharer in their official powers. 

There seems, in truth, to be no choice between a 
succession of some kind, and the reduction of ordina- 
tion to the grade of a mere empty unmeaning cere- 
mony. If the ordainer has not himself received the 
power of ordaining from others before him, his act 
must necessarily be null and void. A true ordination 
really conveys or imparts spiritual authority ; and 
therefore, those who ordain must themselves possess 
the authority which they profess to convey to others. 



Lines of Transmission. 



187 



But, if so, whence did these ordainers obtain that 
authority ? Obviously it could only be from those 
by whom they themselves were ordained. And 
thus we come at once on a line of succession, which 
must either run back to the Apostles' days, or van- 
ish into nothing at some point on the way. This 
issue did not escape the discernment of the founders 
of Presbyterianism, who were acute enough to see 
that a new Ministry taking its start 1500 years after 
our Lord's ascension, and never heard of before, 
must necessarily be illegitimate and without Divine 
warrant. To avoid this fatal charge, the novel 
theory was invented that there was originally only 
one order of Minister s, that Bishops and Presbyters 
were essentially the same ; and that, by consequence, 
the power of ordination resided in Presbyters as 
well as in those who were called Bishops. This 
theory, which is refuted by every page of ecclesias- 
tical history, is nevertheless remarkable, from the 
fact that it still embodies the idea or principle of 
Apostolic Succession. On this point the strict 
Presbyterian is in agreement w T ith the equally strict 
Catholic Churchman. Their divergence is solely on 
the practical issue of the principle. The one holds 
a succession in the lines of presbyteries ; the other 
to a succession in the lines of Bishops — both parties 
claiming an uninterrupted transmission of minis- 
terial authority from the Apostolic age through 
their respective lines. Hence, the controversy with 
Presbyterians is not on " Apostolic Succession " it> 



1 88 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



self, which both parties admit, but on the further 
question whether Bishops and Presbyters are of the 
same Order, and possess equally the power of ordi- 
nation. The Churchman, however, has proved, over 
and over again, that in the whole period from the 
first century down to the middle of the sixteenth, 
the Ministry of the Church was universally Episco- 
pal. In whatever part of the world Christianity was 
planted, there we are sure to find this Ministry; and 
of no other is a trace to be found in all the records of 
the Catholic Church till we reach the era of the Ref- 
ormation ; at which time, through an alleged necessity, 
the present non-episcopal ministries took their rise. 

Though the term " Apostolic Succession " is com- 
monly restricted to the derivation of the Ministry^ 
yet, in the mind of a Churchman it has an aspect of 
still higher significance ; because it relates also to 
the transmission of spiritual life, supernatural powers 
and gifts, and all the benefits flowing from the In- 
carnation, the sacrifice on the cross, and the work of 
the Holy Spirit. As the Church is the body of 
Christ, it is a living and not a dead body ; and this 
implies, not only the continued existence of the 
Church, but also the perpetuation of all those spir- 
itual endowments which it possessed in the first 
age, — endowments which were to pass on, and to be 
exercised in every future age, for the reclaiming and 
renovating of all human souls. In this light, Apos- 
tolic Succession and the Christian Church have ever 
been, and ever will be, inseparable. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



A mother's novel ideas about baptism. 

IN parishes which have grown up by large acces- 
sions from exterior sources, the new-comers are 
apt to bring with them certain forms of speech which 
contrast very oddly with the current language of the 
Church. These forms cling to them like idioms of 
their mother-tongue ; and to get rid of them, and 
become familiar with the Church's vocabulary, is not 
only a work of time, but too often an unattainable 
accomplishment. With them, the Rector is styled 
" our preacher ; " and they go to church " to hear 
him." The surplice is a " white gown." Children 
are brought to the font to "give them a name." 
These people think that they " join the Church " 
when they become communicants ; and are not 
" members " till then. The sponsors in baptism are 
people who " stand up " for the child. If a man is 
penitent, he is said to be " convicted," or " under 
conviction ;" and he is not " born again " until he is 
" converted " or is " hopefully pious ; " and when he 
dies, he goes, not to Paradise, but straight to heaven. 
There are other mistakes, not quite so common, 



190 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

especially about baptism. These occur chiefly 
among people of low education, but still honest, 
sincere, and often willing to be instructed. The 
writer of this was once requested by a pious woman 
to baptize several of her children. She had re- 
cently come into the parish ; and on calling at her 
house, I was surprised to find that the children were 
from eight to ten or twelve years old. On enquiry, 
I learned that the family had lived in Nova Scotia, 
and that all the children had been baptized by a 
Romish priest, whose church the woman had at- 
tended. On asking her why she had made to me 
so needless a request, she excused herself by saying : 
— " The Roman priest told me that Protestant bap- 
tisms only lasted for seven years ; and I thought that 
maybe you believed the same about Roman bap- 
tisms." 

But perhaps the best subject for comment in this 
chapter, will be a letter now before me from a lady, 
previous to a visitation of the Bishop. It ran 
thus : — 

"March 20, 188-. 

" Rev. Sir :— 

" I am much pleased to hear that the Bishop is to be here 
next month. I see by the papers that as many as 35 joined 
the church at Everton when they were confirmed, and that 
several others would become members at the next Commun- 
ion. I also wish that my daughter Julia could be persuaded 
by you to join the Church. It would be a great comfort to me. 
But I am sorry to say that she is only baptized, and I think 
she ought not to become a member till she has been born 



A Mother s Novel Ideas about Baptism. 191 

again, and made a child of God. Will you be good enough 
to call and have a talk with her ? I will do all I can to pre- 
pare her for your visit ; and I hope your kind advice will not 
be lost. 

" Very sincerely 

" Yours/' etc. 

" Rev. " 

This is one of those letters which very well repre- 
sent the state of religious education in " this enlight- 
ened century." It might perhaps have been written 
two or three hundred years ago by some follower of 
Calvin or John Knox ; but before that era, none but 
a professional wit could have crowded so many 
blunders into so few lines. Even in " the dark ages, 5 ' 
neither man nor woman was accustomed to speak 
after so extraordinary a fashion. Benighted as some 
think the mediaeval folk were, still the very peasant- 
ry of those times had more light in their souls than 
to doubt whether a baptized child had been " born 
anew of Water and of the Holy Ghost," and been 
made a " member " of the one only Church of God. 
It was not till a later period, — a period such as the 
present, in which all the foundations of the Chris- 
tian Faith seem upturned, — that a baptized child or 
person could talk of " joining the Church " in the 
rite of Cofifirmation, or at the Holy Communion ; or 
could suppose that the so-called " membership " of 
a parish comprised only the communicants. For, 
the true " membership " of a parish, i.e., the number 
of Church-members, is simply the whole number of 



192 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

the baptized, — men, women, and children, patriarchs 
and babes. Among these there may be saints and 
sinners of every spiritual grade, valiant soldiers and 
awkward recruits, gray-haired confessors and youth- 
ful worldlings ; but, as we are taught in the Bible, 
the visible Church comprehends them all ; and the 
sins of even the most recreant are the sins of one 
who is still " a child of God," though not by any 
means what every such child ought to be. 

As the case stands, then, we have only to say 
that the good woman who penned the letter before 
us, was not very well instructed in " the mysteries 
of the kingdom of heaven." She tells us that she 
has a daughter, for whose spiritual interests she has 
a loving regard ; and this daughter seems (by her 
account) to be in a very anomalous and puzzling 
position. The young lady has, at any rate, been 
baptized. Her mother admits this ; but is quite 
sure that she has not " joined the Church," though, 
at the baptism, the Minister received her " into the 
Congregation of Christ's flock" and openly declared 
that she was, there and then, "grafted into the body 
of Christ's Church? It is further insinuated that 
the poor girl has not yet been " born again ; " nor is 
she a " child of God," though the Minister and the 
congregation, at the baptism, gave " hearty thanks " 
to God, in these words : — " that it hath pleased thee 
to regenerate this Infant with thy Holy Spirit, to 
receive her for thine own Child by adoption, and to 
incorporate her into thy holy Church? It is, more- 



A Mother s Novel Ideas about Baptism. 193 

over, to be presumed that the mother herself took 
part in offering that very thanksgiving. And we 
may also reasonably trust that, in after years, this 
same mother took the trouble to teach her child the 
Church Catechism, in which these words stand con- 
spicuously at the . very beginning : — •" Baptism, 
wherein I was made a member of Christy the child of 
God, and an inheritor of the Kingdom of Heaven," 

Now all this being so, it would seem that this kind 
mother had the singular faculty of hearing, reading, 
and repeating any number of words and phrases, 
with as little consciousness of their meaning as if 
they were the mere relics of a forgotten language. 
So far as appears, she must have brought her child 
to baptism, merely to give it a Christian name, or to 
comply with a common custom among Church-peo- 
ple. In her view, baptism was "an outward and 
visible sign " of something which might, (or might 
not,) happen by-and-bye ; or a" sign " that the child 
was meant to be a " Protestant Episcopalian," and 
might hereafter " meet with a change " by going to 
Sunday School. 

It is strange enough that it never occurred to this 
lady that one of two things must be true, either (1st) 
that the baptism of her child was what it so clearly 
professed to be ; or, (2d) that it was a profane and 
audacious trifling with holy things, an open mockery 
of God, and a deliberate fraud in the sight and hear- 
ing of any upright man. There is here no middle 
course consistent with common-sense, honesty, or 
9 



194 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



logic. The language of the Baptismal Office is so 
direct, outspoken, positive, and almost defiant in its 
energy, as to baffle all attempts at evasion, toning- 
down, or any other subterfuge of insincerity and unbe- 
lief. In the presence of all Christendom, and, if 
necessary, in the face of " a frowning world," the 
Church declares that every baptized infant is " born 
again," is " a child of God " and a " member " of 
Christ's " mystical body," which is His Church and 
kingdom.* It is, then, simply a question of the 
truth or falsehood of the Baptismal form ; and the 
Church vindicates that form by claiming for it, in 
substance, doctrine, and spiritual efficacy, the author- 
ity of holy Scripture, and the witness of all Christian 
antiquity. 

Notwithstanding all this, the lady above spoken 
of thinks that her daughter, though baptized, has 
not been " born again," and is not yet " a child of 
God." Of course, then, the baptism was a failure, 
— a mere ceremonial act, having no spiritual value 
whatever, and no object other than the conferring of 
a name on the child. Now let us look a little further 
into this, and see to what an issue it will lead us. 
As a matter of reasonable conjecture we may suppose 

* " There is no other way of being born again made known 
to us, but what Christ has instituted, — baptism with water 
and the Spirit. ' Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except any 
one be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into 
the Kingdom of God.' " {Bishop Seaburfs Sermo?is, vol it, 
p. in.) 



A Mother's Novel Ideas about Baptism. 195 

that the girl Julia was not quite as submissive, duti- 
ful, and obedient as she might have been, either to 
God or to her loving parent. But if such failure of 
duty to her heavenly Father proves that she had 
never been " born again," then, by the same reason- 
ing, the failure of duty to her earthly mother proves 
that she had never been born at all, and is not, there- 
fore, the " child " of her mother, nor of anybody else. 
For, if undutifulness to God is, in itself evidence 
against spiritual birth, then undutifulness to a mother 
would seem to be equally good evidence against 
natural birth. And yet, while the lady refuses to 
call her undutiful daughter a u child of God" she 
still clings to that daughter as her own child, with all 
the force of a true mother's love. It seems never to 
have crossed her mind that, in so doing, she virtually 
claims to be more tender, compassionate, and loving 
than God Himself . She will never forsake her child, 
even though God should disown it ; and therefore 
her love surpasses that of the All-merciful God, and 
the Ever-blessed Saviour ! 

Let this lady, and all others like her, bear in mind, 
that, as by natural birth babes, and not full-grown 
men, are brought into the world ; so, by the new 
birth " of Water and of the Holy Ghost," babes in 
Christ, and not full-grozvn Christians, are brought 
into God's family and kingdom. In the one case, as 
the babes are the children of their parents ; so, in 
the other, are they the adopted children of God ; 
and, in both cases, the babes are to be nurtured and 



196 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



fed " with food convenient for them/' in hope that 
in due time they will arrive at the stature of perfect 
men. But, in the strange confusion of religious 
ideas now prevalent, this birth into God's family is 
supposed to be effected by a simple decision of the 
human will, under the alleged assistance of the 
Spirit of God ; and that the product is not a babe 
at all, but a man in Christ Jesus, with all the powers 
belonging to adult age. Hence, on the popular sys- 
tem, a man convinced of his sinfulness, and in some 
general way confiding in Christ for salvation, is said 
to have become a " Christian," all at once, even 
though unbaptized) and as indifferent about either 
Church or Creed, as he is ignorant of both. It is 
safe to say that we read of no such " Christians " in 
the New Testament ; and until the great Head of 
the Church sees fit to revoke His own appointments, 
Baptism must still remain the Sacrament of the New 
Birth, and the instrument by which we become " the 
children of God." 



CHAPTER XV. 



"NOT DISCERNING THE LORD'S BODY." 

NOTWITHSTANDING the current teaching 
of the Church concerning the holy Eucha- 
rist, and the numberless treatises, sermons, essays, 
tracts, etc, which illustrate and confirm that teach- 
ing, we still find, lingering in many minds, a very 
erroneous conception of the nature of that holy 
Sacrament, and particularly of the heavenly gift im- 
parted to every worthy receiver. It may be safely 
said that there are hundreds of communicants, even 
of long standing, who, if questioned, would express 
their minds in some such terms as these : — " I go to 
the Communion because I think it my duty to do 
so, in obedience to our Lord's command. But, in 
my judgment, the bread and wine are to be regarded 
simply as signs or symbols, to keep us in remem- 
brance of the sufferings and death of our Saviour. 
The design of the Sacrament is, as I suppose, to 
stimulate and strengthen our devotional feelings, 
and so to excite our faith that we may obtain what- 
ever benefits are promised to us in the faithful re- 
ception of that Sacrament." 

It requires but little discernment to see that, if 



198 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



this were the sole purpose of the holy Eucharist, that 
Sacrament would rank no higher than an external 
act or ceremony provided for the relief of a languid 
faith, the excitement of a sluggish imagination, and 
the periodical help of an infirm memory. This at 
least would be a natural inference ; for, if the sac- 
ramental elements are 07tly figurative, or symboli- 
cal of something absent or historical, e.g., the sacri- 
fice on the cross, it must be their office simply to 
stimulate thought and reflection about that thing 
which they represent. In that case, memory would 
become not an ordinary but a chief factor in the 
efficiency of the Sacrament. And though it is as- 
sumed, in the above saying, that the faith which 
that holy Sacrament stirs up in drowsy souls is re- 
warded with some special benefit or blessing, yet 
that benefit is supposed to be like any other opera- 
tion of the Divine Spirit, and not peculiar to the 
Eucharist, and identified with it. On this Zuing- 
lian theory, (for it is nothing less,) it would logically 
follow, that, to a person of vigorous faith, lively 
imagination, and unfaltering memory, the Eucharist 
would be almost a superfluity ; because he could 
realize most of its benefits at any time or place, 
without partaking of the Sacrament itself. And, on 
the other hand, it might reasonably be expected that 
the most earnest demands for frequent celebrations 
would come from those who were mournfully con- 
scious of their want of such qualifications as a good 
memory, etc., and were urgent in seeking relief for 



" Not Discerning the LorcPs Body" 199 

their spiritual infirmities by resort to the holy Com- 
munion. But, in ordinary experience, this does not 
prove true. We find that frequent Communions are 
not the fruits of an infirm faith, but of that which is 
intense and active ; and, in neither case is the weak- 
ness or strength of the communicant's memory a 
matter of prime importance. We come then to 
this conclusion, viz., that the above saying is open 
to a good many objections, and cannot be accepted 
as a fair sample of Churchly thought. 

No one, of course, can doubt that memory has its 
proper place in the holy Communion. The more 
vividly we can call to mind the bitter sufferings and 
precious death of the Redeemer, the better shall we 
be prepared for the Sacrament in which they are 
commemorated. On this point, there is nothing to 
censure in the opinion under notice. The error lies 
in so limiting the Communion to a mere " remem- 
brance " of Christ's sufferings and death, as to ex- 
clude from view the most essential, vital, and mys- 
terious traits of that holy Sacrament. It is on this 
error alone that I wish to make some further com- 
ments, — avoiding, as much as practicable, the dis- 
cussion of several other and deeper questions relating 
to the Holy Eucharist. 

That our Blessed Lord gave the command, " Do 
this in remembrance of me," and that the Holy 
Communion has thus a commemorative aspect, is 
universally understood and believed. It involves, of 
course, an act of memory, a calling to our vivid re- 



200 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



membrance the sacrifice once offered on Calvary. 
But the Holy Eucharist is mueh more than this, and 
much more than anything implied in the Zuinglian 
hypothesis. The very words of Christ just cited, 
when rightly interpreted, speak of a memorial offered 
before God, as well as a remembrance on the part of 
man. And ever since the Apostles' days, the Church 
has viewed this venerable Sacrament as a " holy 
mystery," in which spiritual life and nourishment 
are conveyed to the. souls of the faithful,— an idea 
far transcending the notion of the Communion being 
chiefly " a religious ordinance " in memory of the 
Redeemer's offering on the cross, 

Besides, if " remembrance " were all, it is not ir- 
reverent to say that this Sacrament does not seem 
to possess any exclusive or peculiarly significant 
means of attaining that object. It may even be 
asserted that in the symbolic acts of the Eucharist 
(apart from the words,) there is nothing so pointed 
and definite as to raise up in a mind not previously 
instructed, any striking conception of their solemn 
meaning. In many other modes which are not sac- 
ramental, the very same course of thought might be 
excited in any reverent mind, — as, for instance, by 
reading the narrative of our Lord's passion and 
death, or by an appropriate sermon, by a cross or 
crucifix, an elaborate painting, a sculptured device, 
and numerous other agencies fitted to awaken strong 
reflection. This is a difficulty on the threshold, 
which may suggest to those who hold the opinion 



" Not Discerning the Lord's Body." 



201 



above recited, that on their theory, this Holy Sac- 
rament loses much of its importance, and can hardly 
be considered " necessary to salvation." 

But this reduction of the Holy Communion 
chiefly to a ceremonial act in memory of Christ's 
sufferings and death, fares still worse when tested 
by sacred Scripture. We need look no further than 
to the remarkable solemnity, the awe and mystery, 
attending the original institution of the Eucharist, 
to see that the " eating and drinking of Christ's body 
and blood " had a far higher significance than a feast 
to be kept simply in memory of Him. We find no 
such overawing solemnity in the institution of Bap- 
tism^ though that Sacrament would also naturally 
become a standing " remembrance " of Christ, in 
whose Name we are baptized. Why, then, should 
this difference exist between the two Sacraments, 
seeing that both bear witness to Him, whose "blood 
cleanseth from all sin " ? Besides, it was not likely 
that the Apostles would be liable to forget their 
Lord, while they were every day preaching " Christ 
crucified." Nor would their converts readily lose all 
remembrance of Him in whose Name they had been 
baptized, and for whose sake thousands of them 
were ready to lay down their lives. Nor could the 
Church itself, founded by the Son of God, ever for- 
get Him while that Church would necessarily bear 
daily witness to the Incarnation, sufferings, and res- 
urrection of its great Head. Nothing, then, could 
be more improbable than that the Blessed Redeemer 



202 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



should ever be forgotten in any time or place where 
His Gospel, His Church, His word, and His bap- 
tism, had found admittance and won defenders. 
But this being so, it is demonstrable that the Holy 
Eucharist must comprise much more than a mere 
" remembrance" of Christ, illustrated or enforced by 
certain ceremonial acts. 

In the faulty saying now under review, it is said 
that the elements in the Holy Communion are signs 
or symbols only ; and that the essentials of the Sac- 
rament are the excitement of memory, and the 
strengthening of faith, etc. If so, we shall be at a 
loss to account for the extraordinary and amazingly 
strange language in which our Lord and the sacred 
writers speak of these same elements. The receptive 
act in the Eucharist is by them described as the 
eating of the Body, and drinking of the Blood, of 
Christ, — a mode of expression which, on the object- 
or's theory, is utterly incomprehensible, and in no 
way descriptive of the matter in hand. And yet, 
our own feelings, on reading such language, will but 
faintly represent to us the horror which would come 
upon the mind of a Jewish convert, at the mention 
of an ordinance admitting of such a definition. But, 
in spite of all that, our Lord in speaking by antici- 
pation of this Sacrament, does not hesitate to use 
such startling words as these : — " Except ye eat the 
flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye 
have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and 
drinketh my blood, hath eternal life 



" Not Discerning the Lord's Body." 203 

For, my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink 
indeed." (S. John, vi.) And we read that, in con- 
sequence of such words, many of our Lord's disci- 
ples forsook Him; though nothing could have 
been easier than the quieting of their scruples by 
simply telling them that this was only a highly fig- 
urative way of describing a feast hereafter to be 
instituted to exercise the faith and memory of 
Christian believers. 

It appears also that, long after this, the Apostle 
Paul used the very same kind of language; and that 
a special revelation was made to him respecting 
the mysterious nature of the Holy Sacrament thus 
described. He says, for instance, — " The cup of 
blessing which we bless, is it not the communion (or 
communication,) of the blood of Christ ? the bread 
which we break, is it not the communion of the 
body of Christ ? " And he goes on to say, — " who- 
soever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of 
the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body 
and blood of the Lord." In this, the unworthiness 
is not said to consist in a profanation of the memory 
of Christ's sufferings and death, but of His very Per- 
son, — His " body and blood," — inasmuch as they did 
not " discern," the Lord's body. And that offence 
was of such grave import that the Apostle warns 
the irreverent among the Corinthians that he who 
does not thus discern the Lord's body " eateth and 
drinketh damnation to himself ; " and then adds : — 
" for this cause many are weak and sickly among 



204 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

you, and many sleep," Le.> bodily affliction and an 
untimely death had overtaken many, as a punish- 
ment for profaning " the body and blood of the 
Lord." It is manifest enough from all this, that in 
the Apostle's view, these people were guilty of a far 
worse spiritual crime than an act of forgetfulness. 
The essence of the crime lay in this, viz., that they 
did not distinguish, or recognize by faith, " the 
Lord's body " in the Sacrament, but ate and drank 
the elements as if they were mere symbols, unaf- 
fected by consecration. 

Without going any further into the Scriptural ar- 
gument, I only ask those who entertain the opinion 
under notice, to bring together all these singular 
traits of the Holy Communion, these unusual forms 
of expression, the air of aw r ful mystery in which the 
rite is ever shrouded, the precise and serious direc- 
tions as to its reception, the punishments which fell 
upon those who partook unworthily, the fact of its 
being made the subject of a special revelation to S. 
Paul, the agreement of the sacred writers with our 
Lord Himself in speaking of it in terms which have 
no parallel in any other Divine institution ; and 
they will see that, over and above the act of remem- 
brance, there is in this Sacrament a far loftier pur- 
pose, even the communication of Christ's Body and 
Blood to the faithful, and with this the pledge of 
eternal life. 

But the error in question is not only unscriptural, 
but also entirely discordant with the tone and lan- 



u Not Discerning the Lord's Body" 205 

guage of the Prayer-book. What, for example, is 
the first thing that strikes one's mind in the Com- 
munion Service, but the air of solemn majesty, in 
which it towers above all other Offices of the 
Church, — creating at once the impression that here 
is enshrined an idea of overwhelming sublimity ? 
We do not trace anything similar to this in the 
Order for Morning and Evening Prayer, nor in the 
Office for Baptism, though they also abound with 
remembrances or recognitions of our Lord's passion 
and death. In them we do not observe that spirit 
of unearthly devotion and exultation which bursts 
upon us on approaching the Communion Office. 
The difference is so marked that it forces itself upon 
the attention of even those who are unfamiliar with 
the formularies of the Church ; and it seems quite 
unaccountable on the low and meagre view of the 
Eucharist as a mere symbolical act. And if we go 
more minutely into particulars, such questions as 
follow will naturally occur to any one looking into 
the Communion Office, viz., Why are the elements 
to be so reverently consecrated? Why is the Holy 
Spirit to be invoked upon them ? Why is it that 
though Deacons may baptize, yet none but a Bishop 
or Priest can celebrate " these holy mysteries ? " 
How is it that only the baptized are allowed to par- 
take at the altar, though the ^baptized may call 
the Saviour to "remembrance" in any other way 
as freely as they please ? Why is it that Ministers 
are to exhort their people " to the often receiving 



206 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



of the Holy Communion of the body and blood of 
our Saviour Christ, . . . that so doing, they 
may, in case of sudden visitation, have the less cause 
to be disquieted for lack of the same ?" Why is it 
that the Church esteems this Sacrament so impor- 
tant for the sick, that she sends her Priests to ad- 
minister it by the couch of suffering ? Why is it 
that the elements left after public celebration shall 
not be treated as common bread and wine, but are to 
be reverently consumed by the " Minister and other 
communicants, immediately after the blessing?" 
Why is it that sacrificial ideas and language pervade 
the whole Office ? that the table is called " holy," 
and even an " Altar ? " that there is to be a Priest, — 
a Priest standing, — a Priest clothed in appropriate 
vestments, — making an " oblation " of the elements ; 
and that he is to use such remarkable words as 
these : — " Our heavenly Father hath given His Son 
our Saviour Jesus Christ, not only to die for us, but 
also to be our spiritual food and sustenance in that 
holy Sacrament" " My duty is to exhort you to 
consider the dignity of that holy mystery^ and the 
great peril of the unworthy receiving thereof." 
" Grant us therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the 
flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink His 
blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by 
His body, and our souls washed through His most 
precious blood ? " What shall we think of all this, 
and of the conclusion to which it points ? It would 
almost seem as if the Liturgy itself had been copied 



" Not Discerning the Lord's Body." 207 



from the writings of S. Paul, or moulded on the ex- 
pressed words of our Blessed Saviour. 

I have not proposed (as already said,) in these 
mere outlines of thought, to go further than to show 
that the saying at the head of these remarks, is not 
in harmony either with Scripture or the teaching 
of the Church. It is not only incomplete and one- 
sided, but is defective in the worst sense, by ig- 
noring, or effectually obscuring, all that is mysteri- 
ous and supernatural in the Holy Eucharist, and by 
reducing that Sacrament to little more than an 
exercise of the memory and the imagination. The 
drift of such an error is to keep out of sight the 
Divine gift, and to fix all attention on a mere sub- 
jective operation of the human mind. In the one 
case, there is offered to us that, which, after conse- 
cration, is declared to be " the Body and Blood of 
Christ ; " in the other and lower view, we have 
chiefly a " remembrance " of the Redeemer's sacri- 
fice, with prayers for a Divine blessing. — That 
there is, and should be, such a remembrance, in the 
deepest spirit of contemplation, none will deny. 
But besides this, there is opened to us, on God's part, 
a fountain of blessings of a character too mysterious 
to be fully explained, but by which " Ave are made 
one with Christ, that He may dwell in us and we 
in Him." * 

* The following striking words from an able non-episcopal 
writer, will show that the error under review is repudiated 
not only by the Church, but by learned and devout men 



208 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

How all this may be, we know only in part. God 
has not condescended to inform us ; and contro- 
versy on this point often ends in irreverence and 
presumption. We are concerned only with the fact 
as recorded, and as taught in all ages throughout 
the Church of God. We may dispute, as many do, 
and fill the Church and the world with the noise of 
debate ; but all our theories, speculations, and opin- 
ions, will prove illusive as a dream, so long as we 
cannot remove the veil. We may bow down to 
" the spirit of the age," and rationalize all mystery 
away from both Eucharist and Gospel ; but we 
shall only starve our souls in so doing, and make 

among the denominations. " In the institution of the latter, 
[the Holy Eucharist], the Saviour said, 6 Take, eat, this is 7ny 
body, which is broken for you.' ' This is my blood of the 
New Testament^ which is shed for many for the remission of 
sins.' If, indeed, in the face of these solemn divine words, 
Christians choose to rob this ordinance of its substantial re- 
ference to Christ, and make it a mere empty memorial of a 
sacrifice, the force of which to put away sin is not present, 
they are in danger of following in the track of their proto- 
types, the Jews, who robbed their ordinance of even its typical 
reference to Christ, and offered mere vain oblations ; and 
as they by this misuse were gradually drawn into such a 
state as not to be able to recognize and receive the Saviour 
at His first coming, so there may be danger of their anti- 
types, by a similar misuse, failing in the power of discern- 
ing and acknowledging the Saviour at His second coming. 
There may be Pharisees and Sadducees among Christians 
at that great day." (Rev. W. S. Krebs, in Mercersburg 
Review , Juty, 1868,/. 473.) 



" Not Discerning the Lord's Body." 209 

shipwreck of the little faith we have. Revelation 
bears its grand witness to the fact that this Holy 
Sacrament is far more than mistaken men or 
thoughtless Christians take it to be. The Church 
has borne her unfailing testimony to the same high 
truth. And this is all we need, except God's grace, 
to keep us aloof from all " curious and carnal ques- 
tions," and make us " worthy partakers " at His 
holy table. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE CHURCH'S NATIVE LANGUAGE. 

THE Church Prayer-book has many friends even 
among those who do not accept it as their 
standard of doctrine and worship. As a reliable 
basis, on the whole, for Christian unity, it has ob- 
tained, among the more orthodox Protestant sects, 
far more consideration than any of their own Con- 
fessions. But the recognition of the Prayer-book as 
a model, with all that it expresses or implies, is not 
a probable event ; nor would it be desirable until 
the Church and the sects arrive at some uniformity 
of belief concerning the true meaning of numerous 
terms and phrases, which occur not only in the Prayer- 
book, but in the Bible also. These are everywhere 
felt, by Protestants, to be so many stumbling-blocks 
in the way to unity, and are likely to remain for 
some time in the field of disputation. It has there- 
fore been thought by many eager but short-sighted 
advocates of unity, that the Church might easily 
bring such disputation to an end, by simply revising 
the Prayer-book in a broad and generous spirit of 
liberality, and thus bring it more nearly into accord 
with the religious sentiment of the day. In other 



The Church's Native Language. 211 

words, the question is often asked : — " Why should 
the Church be unwilling to remove from the 
Prayer-book all antiquated words and phrases, see- 
ing that they are so often misunderstood, and might 
be so readily replaced by terms conforming to mod- 
ern usage ? " The answer to such a question will 
occur at once to the mind of any intelligent Church- 
man ; but, it may, nevertheless, be more clearly ap- 
prehended and illustrated by reference to a few lead- 
ing facts. 

When the originators of several of the English- 
speaking sects forsook the old Catholic Church of 
England, and created separate organizations, one of 
two things had to be done, — either to confess 
themselves schismatics, or to defend their position 
by such means as might be most available. This 
latter purpose was attempted, partly by inveighing 
against the Church, and repudiating her authority; 
and partly by infusing into certain ecclesiastical and 
scriptural terms, a new meanings favorable to their 
own opinions, but hitherto unknown to the Church. 
This proceeding was obviously a necessity. For, 
in the nature of things, it was not possible that 
the grand and forcible truths indicated by those 
terms could be held in alliance with the vague and 
unsubstantial notions about the Church which were 
very generally adopted by the sectarian bodies. It 
was clear enough that the old wine would very soon 
be the ruin of the new Puritan bottles ; and, to 
ensure the safety of the bottles, nothing could be 



212 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



more expedient than the process of diluting the 
wine. This step, once taken, led to the denounc- 
ing of the Church's language as frequently the 
vehicle of corrupt, unscriptural, Popish, and super- 
stitious ideas, — the inference being that it stood in 
need of such a purgation as the disaffected were 
anxious to give it. The issue really aimed at, was 
nothing less than an entire revolution of Churchly 
thought, by the introduction of sectarian ideas under 
cover of the Catholic language of the Prayer-book ; 
which language itself, through Divine Providence, 
they were unable to change, or seriously modify. 
Instances of these alleged reforms, we have in the 
new meanings affixed by the separatists to the words, 
Church, Catholic, Bishop, Priest, Altar, Absolution, 
Regeneration, " child of God," " member of Christ," 
etc. And the root and reason of this debasement 
of the Church's language was, in short, that uncon- 
querable antipathy which existed in the sectarian 
mind to those clear, compact, and sinewy forms of 
thought, which were always called up by the words 
and phrases of the old saints and martyrs, so fre- 
quently occurring in the various Offices of the 
Church. 

In the present day we are reaping the fruits of 
that disturbance of old-settled relations between re- 
ligious terms and things* We see, all around us, 

* " Is it not the instinct of all old and great institutions, 
to be wary of abolishing prescriptions, even if apparently 
obsolete in practice, if they are conservative of some tradi- 



The Church's Native Language. 213 



the decay of that traditional faith and reverence 
which overawed, in some sort, even the most way- 
ward of our forefathers. The very idea of organic 
and living connection with the Christianity of past 
ages, — a Christianity vast in power, faith, and love, 
whose majestic spiritual works and material monu- 
ments reach back, along the line of centuries into 
the day when " the Word was made flesh," — -all this 
seems strange, incomprehensible, and uncongenial 
to the minds of thousands who, nevertheless, speak 
familiarly of " the Church" claim its title and privi- 
leges, and connect themselves by some transcendental 
and imaginative bond of affinity with the company 
of the faithful in the Pentecostal era. But, far worse 
than the evils incident to " our unhappy divisions " 
is the outlook of that spirit of indifference which pre- 
vails so extensively. For we are threatened with a 
wide-spreading acquiescence in the conviction that a 
religion so many-sided as Christianity appears to be, 
a religion of so many contradictory aspects, and so 
many irreconcilable sects, so broad in its definitions 
of doctrine, so tolerant of what it calls heresy, and 
so capable of attenuation to the very borders of un- 
belief, must be a religion without any objective sub- 
stratum of truth, without any authority over the 

tion which it would be wrong to formally abandon, and ex- 
plicitly condemn, or which at some other time may show it- 
self suited for the occasion, and therefore spring again into 
wholesome life?" (Christian Remembrancer, 1867, vol. i, 9 
p. 257.) 



214 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



conscience, or any claim on the cultivated intellect, 
— a mere outcome of emotion, a form of sentiment, 
in short, only a time-honored myth. 

The answer to the above question is, then, simply 
this : — that the Church is set for the promulgation 
and defence of the Truth as originally delivered to her 
keeping. That Truth she has enshrined in words and 
forms of speech, which, for long ages, have retained 
within the Church their original, orthodox, and 
Scriptural meaning. But, in the present day, and 
in the present disordered state of religious opinion, 
the demand for the change of words cannot safely be 
heard ; because it is, ordinarily, nothing less than a 
demand for a surrender of the truths signified by 
those words. This admits of easy proof ; for, if any 
given word were exchanged by the Church for a more 
modern one that was really equivalent to it, the pro- 
moters of the change would feel that they had not 
gained the point at which they aimed. With few 
exceptions the change of Prayer-book words or 
phrases is urged with the very intention, (sometimes 
openly avowed,) of attacking principles, or at least, 
annulling the obligation to receive and teach them. 
And it is observable that the tendency of such 
changes is almost always downward, and indicative 
rather of an advance towards latitudinarianism than 
to Catholic truth. It may be granted that, in rela- 
tion to matters of slight importance, a wrong name, 
or a wrong sense imposed on a name, may do no 
serious harm among thoughtful people. Names, 



The Church's Native Language, 215 

even misapplied ones, do not affect the intrinsic 
nature of things ; but they often confuse, distort, 
and pervert the judgments of men in the mass, in 
determining what that nature is* This is especially 
so when we are dealing with the long-standing 
names of large organized bodies such as the Chris- 
tian Church, or even of a grand time-honored build- 
ing, whose appellation is woven into the texture of 
a long and glorious history. In such cases, a wrong 
name, (as when the Church is called a " denomina- 
tion,") or a wrong sense given to an old name, (as 
when " Catholic " is used for broad, liberal, com- 
prehensive, etc.) though not affecting at all the 
essential nature of the thing spoken of, may, in the 
event, conjure up in men's minds an utterly false 
conception of the object, and work most injuriously 
in debasing their opinions concerning it.f It is 

* " You may, and often do, degrade a thing by misnaming 
it, as you elevate it by naming it right. Indeed, for one 
case in which actions change gradually the meaning of 
names, there are probably dozens of cases in every nation's 
history, in which names alter more rapidly the drift and 
tendency of actions, or else so much misconstrue them to 
the imagination, that men do not know them for what they 
really are." — {London Spectator.) 

f Suppose, for example, that a few radical English Church- 
men, in some time of religious turbulence, should place, in 
bold letters, over the entrance to Westminster Abbey, the 
words : — " Protestant Meeting-house" Of course, no sensible 
person would believe that the venerable pile would thereby 
suffer any change or diminution of its glory. Yet, that very 
inscription would, in the course of time, give a mischievous 



216 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



therefore no light thing to miscall or misunderstand 
an object, whose real qualities and historical value 
cannot be appreciated at a glance by the mass of 
men, but must be received on testimony and well- 
authenticated tradition. 

On these grounds, the Church — like any other 
corporate body — is justified in guarding her words 
with some degree of jealousy and a prudent fore- 
sight of danger. A few years only have passed since 
the levelling spirit of the times grew rampant even 
within the Church itself. It was well known by 
the advocates of Prayer-book revision at that time, 
that the Church attached a strong and very deter- 
minate meaning to certain prominent terms, — a 
meaning which was obstructive to a freer inter- 
course with the " denominations " around. The 
whole drift of the proposed revision was to invest 
these terms with another and less positive meaning, 
or, at least, to make their use discretionary, or to sup- 
ply them with alternate and always feebler readings. 
Every one knew that the Church spoke clearly and 
decisively on those points ; and her speech was the 
very object of resistance. Those points, moreover, 

bias to the minds of ordinary passers by, and even of many 
a simple-hearted worshipper. In a generation or two, the 
glaring impertinence of the words would cease to be felt ; 
reverence for the old Minster would gradually die out ; and 
projects might perhaps spring up for the remodelling of the 
ritual, and its reduction to the standard of mere " meeting- 
house " devotion. 



The Church's Native Language. 217 

were not few in number. Nor were they mere 
blemishes which had accidentally come into the 
Prayer-book, but were in unison with its whole 
spirit and tone. Hence the bold assertion that the 
Prayer-book itself was faulty ; that it demanded 
alteration even in doctrine ; and that it abounded 
with " germs of Romanism ; " though this charge 
was equivalent to an assertion, that both the An- 
glican compilers, and the American revisers in 1789, 
were ignorant of the difference between Romanism 
and Catholicity. It is almost needless to say that 
the Church in America, (as well as the Church of 
England,) has steadily resisted this incoming of a 
spirit which would soon destroy all the safeguards 
of Divine truth. 

Next to holy Scripture, the Prayer-book is the 
Churchman's vocabulary, and also his book of defi- 
nitions. It has a name for everything in its range, 
and a thing for every such name. To confuse these, 
is to confuse and weary every religious mind. If 
the Church, for instance, uses the term " Catholic " 
only in its true and ancient sense, she thereby pro- 
tests against its special application to the Church 
of Rome, and also against its popular abuse as a 
synonym for a general medley of Creeds and par- 
ties. A name which is already appropriated, stamped 
with the authority of long usage, and recognized by 
all Christendom as meaning one certain thing, can- 
not be claimed and given to some other thing, or 
impressed with a new sense, by the mere voluntary 
10 



218 Episodes in Clerical and Paris Ji Life. 



act of any casual body of men, except at the risk of 
mischief to the purity of language and of religion 
also. 

The Church speaks a language of her own, and 
sanctions no perversions of its old import. It is 
an ancient language, idiomatic, terse, compact and 
energetic, abounding with types of thought nowhere 
else conceivable, except in Scripture ; and so guarded 
by Divine Providence as to retain its form and pu- 
rity amid all the mutations of human opinion. It 
is also an universal language, co-extensive with the 
broad range of the kingdom of God. Its sound has 
" gone out into all lands, and its words into the 
ends of the w r orld." The Church is the sole pro- 
prietor and interpreter of her own speech, as she is 
also the sole trustee of her own right and title. But 
all this is the reverse of the popular theory regard- 
ing religious names and things ; because that theory 
is not the Church theory, nor a theory that can co- 
exist with oneness of faith, or unity of heart and 
soul in the bond of one great Divine and well-or- 
dered fraternity. When, as we have already seen, 
the very primal and fundamental idea of the Chris- 
tian Church as " the kingdom of God," visible on 
earth, and invisible in Paradise, yet still one " king- 
dom " with clear and well-marked boundary lines, 
has become so foreign to the public mind as to be 
reckoned among the extreme opinions of " High 
Churchmen," we cannot wonder that the Church's 
modes of speech also should seem obscure and some- 



The Church's Native Language. 219 



times strange to those who are unfamiliar with her 
teaching. 

In regard to a few words in the Prayer-book 
which have " crept in unawares " and are — philologi- 
cally considered — capable of various constructions, 
it does not follow that any one of those construc- 
tions may be chosen at will, without reference to 
its congruity or incongruity with the system to 
which it belongs. The principles of any system 
govern all obscurities of language in its documents. 
If, for instance, there were in the Constitution of 
the United States, or in any public document, a 
word capable of a monarchical as well as a repub- 
lican signification, the latter would naturally and 
justly be accepted as giving the true sense of the 
writers. But, on precisely the same principles, a 
directly contrary judgment would follow, if a like 
dispute should occur in England, Germany, Italy, 
or any other country having a monarchical govern- 
ment. And thus, all obscure or equivocal words oc- 
curring in the Prayer-book, or in any Church docu- 
ment, are to be interpreted in a Catholic and not 
an uncatholic sense ; because the English reformers, 
(whatever may have been their private opinions 
on certain points,) pledged themselves, over and over 
again, to do their work in strict consistency with 
the doctrine, polity, and usages of the primitive 
Catholic Church. Admitting, then, the existence of 
equivocal terms and phrases to any extent, yet it 
is certain that the Church has but one voice, when 



220 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 

her judgment is invoked on questions touching her 
Entity, Faith, Order, Sacraments, and Ethics. 

It has been often said that the authorized version 
of the Bible has done more than any other book to 
give stability to the English language, and to pre- 
serve its purity. But it is not as generally under- 
stood as it might be, that the influence of the 
Prayer-book in this direction, has been scarcely less 
than that of the Bible. Wherever the Prayer-book 
is known it has exercised an incalculable power in 
preserving the right meaning of religions terms, and 
in restraining whatever tended to the debasing of 
sacred truth, or the confusing of religious thought. 
The great influence of a book circulated by millions, 
and proclaiming everywhere "the Gospel of the 
kingdom " in its simple native form, the authorized 
Creeds of Christendom, the primitive type and por- 
trait of the Church of God, the supernatural effi- 
cacy of the Sacraments, and the highest and purest 
model of saintly life, can be but partially estimated, 
even when we number the thousands now in the 
Church, who, by this very beacon-light shining on 
their darkness, have been saved from a shipwreck 
of their faith. These hints may possibly do good 
service, should they meet the eye of " some poor 
wand'ring child " of distrust, and help him in his 
search for that kingdom, in whose shelter he will 
find rest and peace. 



CHAPTER XVII. 



A "PROFESSOR OF RELIGION." 

EVERAL months had passed since I parted 



with an old and rather gay friend of mine, 
Frank Everton, who had gone on an excursion into 
the far West. Occasionally, a newspaper or a Postal 
card came to assure me that I was still had in re- 
membrance ; and, at last, a letter arrived, in which 
he mentioned, among other things, and with all the 
brevity of a postscript, that he had become u a pro- 
fessor of religion." This was all that he wrote on a 
matter which, at first sight, might seem important 
enough to deserve, at least, a line or two of details. 

1 read the words several times, in order, if possible, 
to extract from them the intelligence which Frank 
doubtless meant them to convey. It was very un- 
likely that a man so well-bred would allow his pen 
to jot down such words in sport, or without some 
corresponding and recent fact to justify them. And 
so, under these impressions, and with a good deal 
of curiosity, interest, and bewilderment, I naturally 
drifted into a line of speculation as to the grounds 
on which my lively old friend had been led to call 
himself "a professor of religion." 




222 



Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



The obscurity of his statement lay altogether in 
these two things : ist, that he omitted to tell me 
what sort of a " professor " he had become ; and 2d, 
what sort of a " religion " he had undertaken to pro- 
fess. This oversight on his part threw me upon a 
wide field of guess-work, with every chance of stum- 
bling on some wrong conclusion. If the reader of 
this will allow himself to think of the case, just as it 
stands, his confusion will probably be not less than 
my own. We may imagine, for instance, that Frank 
has been promoted to a place of dignity in some 
University or Institution of learning ; and that, 
through modesty or inadvertence, he neglected to 
write " professor " with a large capital " P." And 
just here it occurs to me, that as Frank has travelled 
extensively in Europe, and spent some months in 
India and China, and prides himself very much on 
his large and liberal views about sacred things, he 
may possibly have received an appointment as " Pro- 
fessor " of some " religion " other than Christian, — a 
Professor (it may be,) in some Turkish, Chinese, or 
Hindoo literary Institution, where the prevailing 
religion stands prominent in the course of instruc- 
tion. Or, again, if we take for granted that the 
Christian " religion " is meant, (which, on the whole, 
seems more likely,) then it may be possible that 
Frank has become a " Professor " in some religious 
department of a Seminary, or College, or Theologi- 
cal School at home. He may have been elected and 
installed as Professor of the Evidences, or of Church 



A " Professor of Religion." 223 

Polity and History, Dogmatic Theology, Homilet- 
ics, or of the department of Ritual, Plain Song, and 
Cantus Figuratus. In that case, courtesy will re- 
quire us to adorn his name hereafter with S. T. P., 
or some other significant letters. 

But, even if we take the word " professor " with a 
little " p," and assume that the " religion " in ques- 
tion is what is commonly called " Christianity," we 
are still at a loss to know what are the real Articles 
# of this gentleman's belief, — whether he professes the 
venerable Creed of his forefathers, or the Creed 
elongated by Rome, or the Creed expurgated by the 
sects, or the Creed vaporized by the Transcendental- 
ists, or whether his religion may not be too ethereal 
and mystical to be embodied in any Creed at all. 
We are told, it is true, that he professes " religion" 
which is, above all others, the most vague and tan- 
talizing way of stating the thing, because it affords 
us no clew whatever by which we can find out the 
species or variety of the religion he professes. In 
this enterprising land we have not only " the holy 
Catholic Church," but also a hundred or more 
" Churches " of modern contrivance, with " all the 
latest improvements ; " and also a vast assortment 
of Gospels, — the old Gospel for the Catholic Church, 
the modernized Gospel for the " denominations," 
the diluted Gospel for the Christians at large, the 
hybrid Gospel for the speculative, the emasculated 
Gospel for the lovers of this world, and the color- 
less Gospel for those who love only that which " is 



224 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 



right in their own eyes." And besides all this, men, 
both wise and ignorant, find recreation every day in 
dissecting the Bible, rending asunder its bone and 
sinew, and forming out of them new organizations 
— many of them veritable religious skeletons unblest 
by the quickening breath of life. 

In this confusion of all religious thought and ener- 
gy, where are we to look for the man who with won- 
derful simplicity and assurance tells us that he has 
" become a professor of religion ? " In older times, 
when the Prayer-book was set forth, and for long 
ages before, it was an easy thing to know what was 
the " religion 53 of every one who called himself a 
Christian, There was no guess-work about it, no 
need of enquiry as to a man's Creed or his " views," 
and nothing whatever to confuse even a child of ten 
years' old, or the most rustic of wayfaring men. No 
one ever asked, " What denomination do you belong 
to ? " or " Whose church do you attend ? " or, 
" Where do you go to meeting ? " or, " How many 
persuasions are there in your town ? " For, at that 
time, there was not to be found in the land of our 
Mother Church, any one of those organized sects, 
denominations, or persuasions, which now trouble 
the household of faith, deluge all Europe with here- 
sies, and distract all religious thought in the United 
States. Every Christian man, woman, and child, 
had been baptized in the one venerable Church of 
his or her forefathers; and even the refractory Puri- 
tans, before their defection, had confessed " the faith 



A " Professor of Religion J' 225 



of Christ crucified," and been " signed with the sign 
of the cross/' in that same old Church, against 
which they finally rebelled, and set up a new re- 
ligion of their own devising. 

It comes, then, to this, that we are as yet entirely 
in the dark about the spiritual status of this friend 
of mine, who claims to be " a professor of religion." 
Until further light reaches us, it would be unsafe 
even to write him a letter of congratulation. For, 
who can tell whether, at this very moment, Frank 
may not be professing something which will be a 
grief to me to learn, and a life-long worry and tor- 
ment to himself also ? It is true, there is an equal 
chance for the contrary ; and it would be rash to 
predict the issue of the game. In short, Frank has 
led us into a morass of conjectures and possibilities, 
in our efforts to describe and classify that many- 
sided thing, " a professor of religion." He may have 
become a Jew, a Romanist, an Anglo-Catholic, a 
Presbyterian, a Quaker, a Come-outer, a Hard-Shell, 
a Tunker, or a Muggletonian, for anything we know 
to the contrary. Or, taking into view Frank's ante- 
cedents, he may possibly have " got " religion (as 
people say), under the stress and fascination of some 
popular revival, — " got " it, or caught it, as it were, 
by accident, without knowing exactly how the thing 
was done, or what he is to do with himself after this 
sudden promotion to the rank of a " professor." At 
any rate, we may admit that Frank has " met with 
a change " of some kind, and " religion " has been an 
10* 



226 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



element in that change. The only point of embar- 
rassment is the nature and quality of that religion. 

It is admitted on all sides that " religion " does 
really mean something which has a salutary, purifying 
and elevating influence on the human soul ; although 
Charles Kingsley avers, in one of his sermons, that 
we read very little about "religion" in the Bible^ 
(where we should expect much,) while there is in 
that holy Book a great deal concerning another 
thing called " godliness." And this remark, by the 
way, opens a new line of thought, and raises a fur- 
ther question, viz., whether our professor of religion 
is also a professor of godliness ; or, in other words, 
whether his religion may not be that of the melo- 
dramatic or sensational sort, — a religion which stirs 
and dominates not the hearts of its converts, but 
only their susceptible nerves^ and their excitable 
fancies ; a religion which ignores all the toils, con- 
flicts, disasters, and hair-breadth escapes which John 
Bunyan depicts in the story of his Pilgrim ; a relig- 
ion (so called) which opens a new line of travel to 
the Celestial City, with easy transit over life's rough 
places, with no burden to carry, no Apollyon to 
fight, no scorching of feet in the fiery vale of trial ; 
but bright fields, flowers, and sunshine on every 
side, and, at the end, a convenient bridge over the 
rush and peril of Jordan's flood.* 

* " A religion which is purely speculative is no religion at 
all ; it is a philosophy. A religion which consists of emotion 
only is nothing but sentimentalism, and is often gross super- 



A u Professor of Religion." 227 



To a large class of men in this age, such a religion 
recommends itself by its great facility, its unob- 
trusiveness, and many other points of attraction. It 
dispenses altogether with the grave and stern self- 
discipline of the old-fashioned Gospel ; brings the 
world into close and amicable relations with the 
Church ; offers forgiveness of sins without absolu- 
tion, regeneration without baptism, the Body and 
Blood of Christ without the Sacrament, and unity 
in " the Church of the first-born " by a mere spasm 
of faith or emotion ; it tempers or abolishes self- 
denial, bears its cross on cushioned shoulders, works 
out its salvation without fear and trembling, and 
trusts that a title to the glorious mansions of heaven 
may be acquired on far easier terms than were ex- 
. acted, in Tetzel's times, for a twelve-month's relief 
from purgatorial pains. 

In the old and faithful Catholic Church, to which 
the writer of these lines belongs, we have a habit, 
for which the reader will hardly blame us, of dis- 
trusting (more or less,) those who complacently 
style themselves " professors of religion." For, we 
know not whether they have ever been " grafted 

stition. Religious sentiment is sometimes extravagant mys- 
ticism, or abject terrorism. Either form is injurious, as it is 
an exaggeration of one side of religion, at the expense of the 
other. The aspirations of the heart must be controlled by 
the reason, and the intelligence must be humanized by the 
affections." (The Origin and Development of Religious Be- 
lief, By S. Baring-Gould, M.A. VoU Impart I. , p. 76.) 



228 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



into the body of Christ's Church." We know not 
whether their religion is reared on " the faith once 
delivered to the saints," or, on the sandy basis of 
opinion and " human divinity." It is all in the 
region of conjecture, and we wonder at its indefin- 
iteness. But men will have a religion, even if they 
must invent it ; and they will have a God, even 
though it be a wooden one. For some reason which 
the evolutionists have not yet fathomed, there has 
always been found in the human constitution a 
curious bias in favor of some sort of a religion. 
This is not a peculiarity of the heathen mind alone ; 
for it pervades all civilized life also. Even the 
ultra-scientists, who are by no means sure that they 
have immortal souls, solace themselves with visions 
of a "religion of Humanity," and a " religion of the 
Future," with the Unknowable for a Deity, and the 
Unthinkable for a Creed. They have not yet, how- 
ever, conferred on their disciples the title of " pro- 
fessor." This folly, unknown to the heathen and 
the philosophers, finds place chiefly among those 
whose Bible teaches them not to think of them- 
selves more highly than they ought to think. 

It is time surely that so unmeaning a phrase were 
cast out of the Christian vocabulary. In the Church 
of God we prefer that a man's distinction should be 
that of "a godly, righteous, and sober life; " which 
life he may lead without styling himself a "pro- 
fessor " of godliness, righteousness, or sobriety. As 
well might a private soldier be called a " professor 



A " Professor of Religion" 229 



of military tactics/' or a farmer, a "professor of 
agriculture," or a printer, a " professor of typo- 
graphy." For, all men profess many things of which 
it would be mere silliness to call themselves " pro- 
fessors ; " and one who is a follower of Christ in 
heart, soul, and body, will be " known and read of all 
men " by the godliness of his life, without proclaim- 
ing himself, in the cant and empty language of the 
day, " a professor of religion." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



" REQUIESCAT IN PACE." 

IN the early part of the present century, there 
seems to have been very little activity of 
thought, or depth of interest, concerning the rela- 
tions existing between the militant Church and the 
spirits of those who have "departed hence in the 
Lord." The Intermediate State, though recognized 
in theory or verbal statement, was restrained in its 
practical issues by a lingering feeling of distrust, 
and a vague impression of its near affinity to the 
Romish doctrine of purgatory.* The immortality 
of the soul became thus, in one very important 
respect, an unfruitful tenet ; because death was 
supposed to terminate all communion, or exchange 
of sympathy and affection, between the living and 
the dead. Under this very general " eclipse of 
faith " in regard to the unseen world, the death of 
even the most saintly friend or relative was practi- 

* " In the present day, anxiety to avoid the very blam able 
extravagances of the Church of Rome, frequently leads 
persons unwittingly to narrow the proper sphere of our re- 
ligious affections, and to snap asunder many links between 
us and the invisible world." [Christian Observer y 1816, p. 

556.) 



" Requiescat in Pace!' 



231 



cally felt to be a total separation, and to involve an 
oblivion of all further connection and available in- 
terest with the departed, or of the departed with 
those still living on earth. This narrowing of ■ 
Churchly thought to the limit of the present life, 
had, of course, some very natural results. It changed 
very seriously the bright tone and coloring of the 
religious life. The saints of old, and all the faith- 
ful, whether of high or low degree, had found in the 
contemplation of Paradise and the joys of its eman- 
cipated spirits, a never-failing source of consolation 
amid all the trials, and worrying spiritual annoy- 
ances, which the world could invent, or the flesh 
provoke, or the devil instigate. The loss, or even 
partial loss, of this habitual belief in the continuity 
existing between the Church on earth, and the 
Church in Paradise, threw a chilling air of solitari- 
ness on the religious life, wilting all the " joy of be- 
lieving," and^ dooming many earnest and really con- 
scientious people to cry, 

" Our souls, how heavily they go, 
To seek immortal joys ! " 

It was not without reason, then, that (under a simi- 
lar state of things in the English Church), such men 
as Archbishop Magee, and Bishops Horsley and Tom- 
line, like their predecessors, Taylor, Bull, Burnet, 
and Seeker; and subsequently, Bishops Seabury, 
White and Hobart, of the American Church, were 
led to set forth, from pulpit and press, the true doc- 



232 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 

trine of the Intermediate State, for the instruction of 
thousands who needed to be reminded that " living 
saints and dead, but one Communion make." That 
doctrine, so dimly apprehended, and often so far 
misconceived as to be ranked among the extreme 
and recondite teachings of a class of advanced High 
Churchmen, was thus, in a measure, restored to its 
true place as a legitimate deduction from Holy 
Scripture; and was further confirmed by the fact, 
that it had been distinctly set forth and- defended by 
many learned and candid sectarian divines, among 
whom were Dr. Campbell, Scotch Presbyterian ; 
Dr. Macknight, the Presbyterian Commentator ; Dr. 
Doddridge, also Presbyterian ; Dr. Wilson, Amer- 
ican Presbyterian ; and Dr. Adam Clarke, the Meth- 
odist Commentator, who thus followed the teach- 
ing of the Rev. John Wesley. 

These all held and taught that there is a certain 
State, Place, or Condition, in which departed souls 
are detained until they rejoin their bodies at the 
general resurrection. And it is to the exclusion of 
this Scriptural doctrine or fact from much of the 
religious literature of past years, and the slight 
prominence given to it in the current teaching from 
the pulpit, that we must attribute the prevalent un- 
scriptural notion that the human soul, on departing 
from the body, goes directly either to the place of 
eternal joy, or of eternal torment. This popular 
error is, of course, entirely inconsistent with the 
clearly revealed truth, that, at the last day, we shall 



' ' Requiescat in Pace. 



233 



all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to re- 
ceive our reward or condemnation. For, if men are 
sent to their reward or punishment immediately 
after death, what can be the object of a general 
judgment at the end of the world ? If the decision 
has been made long before that event, the verdict 
rendered, and its execution carried into effect, why- 
should the soul, after perhaps thousands of years of 
bliss or misery, be summoned again to God's bar, 
to give account for the deeds done in the body ? 
The fact of the general judgment is, therefore, 
enough in itself to prove, that till then, the souls of 
the departed are detained in some place — neither 
heaven nor hell, but — a state in which the happiness 
or woe of each soul will result from its foresight or 
anticipation of the final decision at the last day. 

Of this Intermediate State, the story of the rich 
man and Lazarus makes it apparent that the souls 
of the righteous and of the unrighteous are not 
mingled together, but separated by " a great gulf." 
We also learn from the narrative of the thief on the 
cross, that, in that state, the souls of the righteous 
dwell in what is called " Paradise." " This day," 
said our Lord, " shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 
That place could not be heaven, for the human soul 
of our Lord went not to heaven until His Ascension. 
Paradise, therefore, is a part or portion of Hades, the 
Intermediate State, "the place of departed spirits." * 

* " Paradise is distinguished from the heaven of the blessed, 
being itself a receptacle of holy souls, made illustrious with 



234 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



We recur now to the point already given out as 
the main topic of this chapter, viz., the close relation 
existing between the souls of the faithful departed, 

visitation of angels, and happy by being a repository for such 
spirits who at the day of judgment shall go forth into eternal 
glory. In the interim Christ had trod all the paths before 
us. and this also we must pass through to arrive at the courts 
of heaven. Justin Martyr said it was the doctrine of heret- 
ical persons to say that the souls of the blessed instantly 
upon the separation from their bodies enter into the highest 
heaven. And Irenasus makes heaven, and the intermediate 
receptacle of souls, to be distant places — both blessed, both 
largely different in degrees." {Bishop Jeremy Taylor's Life 
of Christ, p. 700.) 

" It was the belief of the primitive Christians, as well as of 
the old Jews, that at the departure of the soul from the body, 
it went to a secret, invisible place provided by God for its 
residence, there to remain till the general judgment ; the 
wicked in uneasiness, remorse, and despair ; the good in 
peace and refreshment, with an assured hope of God's favour, 
and a full acquittal at the final retribution. . . . On 
this ground stood the commemoration of the martyrs, and 
prayers for the faithful departed out of this life, that God 
would grant them rest and peace in Christ, and free acquittal 
in the day of judgment ; and to give us grace to follow the 
example of their faith and patience, that with them we might 
be made partakers of His heavenly Kingdom, through the 
merit of Jesus the Saviour. . . . Every one who will 
consider the subject without prejudice . . . will lament 
that the Church of Rome by grafting the absurd errors of 
purgatory, and prayers to departed saints, instead of for 
them, on this old, and pious, and Catholic, Christian doc- 
trine, hath almost banished it out of the minds of Protestant 
Christians." {Bishop Seabur/s Sermons, vol. i.,p. 197.) 



" Requiescat in Pace'' 235 

and the souls of their brethren yet in the flesh. 
This relation suggests the two questions, 1st, 
Whether any influence can flow from them to us ? 
and 2d, Whether any influence can flow from us to 
them ? As to the first, we may safely infer, both 
from Scripture, and the nature of things, that a soul 
in Paradise, delivered from all further contact with 
sin and temptation, from all fluctuations of faith, 
uprisings of rebellious instincts and long-dormant 
lusts, would find every virtue exalted, every spirit- 
ual power set free and intensified, and all its capa- 
bilities of affection flowing out in streams of endear- 
ing sympathy and love to those who were still 
struggling in a world of trial and sorrow. Who 
then can doubt that every such soul in Paradise 
prays for its loved ones on earth far more earnestly 
and effectually than it ever prayed before its deliv- 
erance " from the burden of the flesh " ? Can we 
believe that the charity of a ransomed soul in the 
Paradise of the blessed, is less fervent than that of 
the rich man in torment, who so passionately plead- 
ed with Abraham for his five brethren on earth ? 

But 2d, admitting that the faithful departed pray 
for us, is it right and congruous with Christian prin- 
ciples that we should pray for them ? This question 
is often answered in a summary way, by appealing 
to the universal practice of the Christian Church 
from a very early age, and the customary offering of 
similar prayers in the Jewish synagogues. The evi- 
dence is decisive, as the reader will find by consult- 



236 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



ing the ancient liturgies, the writings of the Chris- 
tian fathers, and the history of the early Church. 
Instead, however, of reproducing more or less of 
these testimonies, I prefer to guide the reader along 
another line of thought, which will show one or two 
of the reasons why prayers for the dead (as dis- 
tinguished from the Romish purgatory,) have pre- 
vailed so extensively in the Church. 

Prayer, in itself, is not a distinctively or exclusive- 
ly Christian practice, nor a peculiarity of any relig- 
ious system. In its simplest form as an appeal from 
the creature to the Creator, it seems to be so spon- 
taneous and universal, that it may safely be regarded 
as an instinct of our nature, — an irresistible inclina- 
tion to seek protection and blessing from a superior 
Power. In every age, in every land, and in every 
condition of humanity, from the mouth of savage 
and sage, from the lips of the rude and the refined, the 
voice of prayer in some form has been heard. The 
impulse in the direction of prayer survives even in 
the desolate spirit of Atheism itself ; for, in mo- 
ments of extreme peril, the unbeliever involunta- 
rily cries out in his terror ; — " If there is a God, let 
Him draw near, and help me ! " Men will pray, 
though it be to the sun, moon, or stars, to a statue 
of marble or gold, to an ideal divinity, or even to 
a wooden god, made, as they know, by their own 
hands. 

The prayer of a Christian, however, is not only an 
instinct, but a privilege, a duty, and a necessity, at 



" Requiescat in Pace." 



237 



all times. Within the Church, men stand in a very 
near relation to God, and their prayers ascend to the 
mercy-seat in union with the intercession of that 
Holy One, who, after He " had overcome the sharp- 
ness of death," set open "the kingdom of heaven to 
all believers."* This, then, brings up the question, 
" What is the scope of prayer; and is it subject to 
limitations, conditions, or qualifications ? " The an- 
swer, derived from Scripture, is this; 1st, We have 
no right to ask for things which are contrary to 
God's law, or inimical to the principles of justice and 
righteousness, or perilous to the interests of men's 
souls or bodies ; 2d, We must ask " in faith, noth- 
ing wavering " ; and 3rd, Prayer must be offered in 
the Name, and through the merits, of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. 

What then, under these conditions, is the real 
scope, range, or province of prayer? Does it extend 
only to the various spiritual and temporal exigen- 
cies of our present life ? or, Does it reach onward to 
those things which affect our condition in the far- 
distant future, — things relating to the world to 
come, to a life beyond the grave ? (Let the reader 

* " Although in man's natural state prayer has always 
struggled up from his heart to the great Being above him, of 
whose existence and power reason has given him an inkling, 
yet the prayer of man under Revelation must be something 
higher and more assured than this blind groping after God, 
— it must be a word of man to God, based and built upon a 
word of God to man" [Dean Goulburn on the 66 Collects of 
the Day," vol. i., p. 13.) 



238 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



mark this question well ; for, as we shall presently 
see, the further question of prayers for the dead is 
involved in its decision.) 

In approaching such an inquiry, it will be ad- 
mitted by all orthodox Christians, (as an abstract 
principle, at least,) that it is the right and the duty 
of a Christian man to pray with a reference to the 
whole term of his existence. From this it would 
'follow, that, if man were a mere mortal being, like 
"the beasts that perish," he would need only to pray 
for a prosperous life, a serene death, and an undis- 
turbed grave. That would include all. Death 
would be the end of conscious existence ; and there- 
fore any petition for things in a future state would, 
in his case, be an absurdity. But, on the contrary, 
man is an immortal being ; and therefore the prayer 
of a Christian reaches not only to the hour of his 
death, but speeds onward in an unbroken stream of 
petition, touching all that lies beyond the grave, and 
onward still even into the remoteness of eternal ages. 
We cannot read the Bible without becoming con- 
scious of all this. We cannot read the Prayer-book 
without seeing how, first of all, it bids us pray that 
we may have light, peace, and comfort, in the hour 
of death ; and then it goes on, admonishing us to 
pray continually for another class of things, which, 
by their very nature, are beyond the act of death, 
i.e.) we are taught to offer certain petitions which 
can only be answered after the soul has left the 
body. 



" Requiescat in Pace." 



239 



Reducing all this, then, to its simplest terms, we 
have before us, 1st, the fact that we are offering 
prayer (of the kind named) for a living man ; and 2d, 
the certainty that our prayer cannot be answered 
till that man has departed this life, and is an inhab- 
itant of the unseen world. Such prayer is, there- 
fore, really and essentially, prayer for the dead. By 
no other name can it be so well described. For if, 
in the Church's words, we pray for a certain sick 
man, that his soul may be received after death 
" into the hands of a faithful Creator, and most 
merciful Saviour," it is evident that we are contem- 
plating him, in that prayer, not as a living but as a 
dead man, i.e., we pray beforehand, for his departed 
spirit ; because such a prayer cannot possibly be 
answered till his soul has left the body, and entered 
eternity.* The Prayer-book is full of such peti- 
tions, — petitions which we are continually offering 
for ourselves and others, that certain blessings may 
be ours when our bodies are mouldering in the dust. 
And as the passing of the river of death is but the 
first stage in the progress of an immortal existence, 
so, in the Church's prayers we still look onward to 
the day of the resurrection, when " our corruptible 
bodies shall be changed, and made like unto " our 
Lord's " own glorious body." We pray for one an- 

* The old formula used by judges at the end of a sentence 
of execution, — " and may the Lord have mercy on your 
soul" — is obviously a prayer for the criminal's soul after the 
execution, and is therefore a prayer for the dead. 




240 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

other, that " from the grave and gate of death, we 
may pass " into a state of "joy and felicity." We 
pray thus, in advance, for that which perhaps may 
not take place till long centuries have rolled over 
our graves. And this is also the scope or wide 
range of S. Paul's petition in those remarkable 
words, " I pray God, your whole spirit and soul, 
and body, be preserved blameless, unto the coming 
of our Lord Jesus Christ" — a petition covering the 
whole period between our death and our rising "to 
the life immortal." Nor do we fail to pray, still 
further, that the " Good Lord " would " deliver us, 
in the day of judgment" and that we may have 
" our perfect consummation of bliss in His eternal 
and everlasting glory." Indeed, so natural is all this, 
and consistent with the truest piety, that Christians 
of every sect and denomination, as well as ourselves 
and the whole Catholic Church, are constantly 
offering up such prayers for the dead, — prayers that 
when God is " pleased to take us hence," He may 
" receive us into those heavenly habitations, where 
the souls of those who sleep in the Lord Jesus, en- 
joy perpetual rest and felicity." In so praying, we 
simply follow the example of S. Stephen, who, 
while the Jews were stoning him, uttered the prayer, 
" Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," — a prayer which 
could not be answered until the lips of the martyr 
were silent in death. And it is not improbable 
that Stephen had in his mind the dying words 
of our Blessed Saviour, — words looking beyond 



" Requiescat in Pace" 



241 



death, " Father, into Thy hands I commend my 
spirit." * 

It may, however, occur to the reader as an objec- 
tion, that in thus praying for blessings in the future 
state, our meaning is simply that, by the holiness of 
our lives we may become fit for the enjoyment of 
those blessings. This may be true, as a general 
rule ; but it is not true, in hundreds of cases contin- 
ually occurring. At the bed-side of one, dear to us, 
but with a soul unvisited by repentance for a life 
of sin and vanity, we watch in almost hopeless fear 
and distress. There is no time now for the discip- 
line of a holy life, no ear or desire for spiritual coun- 
sel, or for words of faith and penitence; and yet, 
even till the last breath of the sufferer, and the last 
beat of the pulse, there goes forth from our trem- 
bling lips the cry, " God be merciful to this dying 
sinner ! " On which side of the grave is it supposed 
that this prayer can be answered ? 

We now reach the question, — " How does all this 
apply to prayers for souls already departed, — souls 
perhaps of beloved ones, long ago translated into the 
Paradise of God ? " I answer, that,, if the Church 
and the Bible teach us to pray daily in advance for 
such blessings as we, — now living men, — shall need 
after death, there can be no valid objection to 

* Parts of this paragraph and some lines further on, are 
transcribed from a letter written by the author to a friend 
some time ago ; the substance of which letter he printed 
anonymously in a Church paper now extinct. 



242 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life, 

prayers of a similar kind for the benefit of those who 
have already departed hence. All such prayers flow 
naturally from a belief in the soul's immortality, and 
from the vast field which such a belief throws open 
for charity and intercommunion between the souls 
of the dead and the living. If then, both charity 
and natural affection require us to pray for a man's 
future welfare while he is yet living, it is not very 
clear why this work of charity and brotherly-kind- 
ness should be brought to a sudden termination as 
soon as he is taken away from us. It may be that, 
while he was here, he was my friend. I bore him 
in remembrance in many an hour of devotion ; and 
the most fervent of my prayers were for his soul, 
rather than his body. That soul and mine, and 
millions of other souls, were bound together in the 
unity of the body of Christ. That bond of unity 
death had no power to sever. It consigned his body 
to the tomb, but left unharmed all the freedom and 
immortal vigor of the living spirit. Between that 
spirit and mine there is the same close alliance and 
fellowship which existed when we knelt together at 
the Church's sacred altar, and there joined " with 
angels and archangels " in praising God's most holy 
name. That soul, now in Paradise, believes as I be- 
lieve, adores Whom I adore, and doubtless prays as 
I do for a glorious resurrection, and the life of soul 
and body together in the world to come. As then 
the death of my friend has not dissolved or impaired 
that Christian relation which we mutually held be- 



" Requiescat in Pace." 



243 



fore his decease, no reason can be given why I should 
now deny to his soul all the benefit that the feeble 
prayers of a mortal man can offer, — no reason why 
I should not, on bended knees, and in a Christ-like 
spirit, ask the Father of all mercies to " give him 
rest and peace, and let perpetual light shine upon 
him. 5 ' 

To say that the souls of the faithful departed need 
no prayers, is more than the wisest of men should 
dare to affirm. Let it first be proved that death is 
a purgatorial process, from which the soul emerges 
in all the splendor and purity of an angelic nature. 
Let it be proved that every soul entering Paradise is 
absolutely perfect, has nothing to learn, nothing fur- 
ther to desire, and is so replete with gifts as to ren- 
der prayer a superfluity. And let it also be proved 
that souls in Paradise are incapable of progress, un- 
able to grow in wisdom and knowledge, undesirous 
to aspire to still loftier regions of celestial virtue, 
and that the state of the departed is not one of prep- 
aration for the great day of the Lord, when Death 
and Hades shall deliver up their inmates to be 
judged by the Son of Man.* 

* No one can doubt the antiquity of prayers for the dead, 
who reads the ancient Liturgies of the Church, and the 
writings of the Greek and Latin Fathers. Numerous quota- 
tions may conveniently be found in Bishop Forbes's " Expla- 
nation of the Thirty-nine Articles,"//. 314-347. (Oxford 
and London Ed. 1871.) 

See also, II. Maccabees, XII. 43-47, proving that such 
prayers were in use among the Jews before the Christian era. 



244 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 



Slowly, but surely, the voice of nature, of reason, 
and of the Church of God, is winning its way in re- 
vealing, even to the popular mind, more or less of 
the glory of the spiritual world. The dread of its 
sacred emblems, its material symbols, and its shadow- 
ings and types in the ever-recurring train of Church- 
ly ceremonial and usage, is passing away with the 
follies of Puritanical prejudice and the apathy of a 
sceptical world. Fifty or sixty years ago, the cross 
was seldom seen, even as an architectural feature, on 
any other than Anglo-Catholic or Roman churches. 
It has now triumphed overall objection, and glitters 
on the spires, towers, and internal ornamentation of 
even Unitarian houses of worship. In our public 
cemeteries also, where the Christian eye is still 
pained with a flaunting display of the old types of 
heathenism, Egyptian obelisks, Hindoo mausolea, 
inverted torches, fractured columns, sarcophagi, urns, 
arrows broken, bows snapped, flameless lamps, and 
the like, we now find the marble cross, often massive, 
conspicuous, and richly adorned, together with the 
sacred monogram, and the touching words which 
tell that the sepulchre encloses those who have died 
" in the communion of the Catholic Church and 
on many a tomb we find, at least, those three preg- 
nant and appealing letters, which invite us to pray, 
u May he (or she,) rest in peace." The progress 
made by this revival of interest in the departed, as 
expressed by the use of the cross over their re- 
mains, has recently received a very remarkable illus- 



" Requiescat in Pace" 



245 



tration. In a letter from the Rev. Mr. McKim, a 
missionary in Japan, is an account of a funeral, which 
closes with these words : — " You can always tell the 
graves of Christians in the Japanese cemetery, for 
they are all marked with crosses. Episcopal, Con- 
gregational, Presbyterian, Roman and Greek, — all 
have the cross for a head-board." {Spirit of Mis- 
sions, June, 1886, p. 217.) 

The cross on a tomb proclaims the immortality of 
the soul ; for it symbolizes " the power of God unto 
salvation." It proclaims also the resurrection of the 
dead, through the power and merits of Him who 
died thereon. Believing this, can a Christian heart 
forbear to pray for a departed friend, as S. Paul 
prayed for Onesiphorus, " The Lord grant unto 
him, that he may find mercy of the Lord in that 
day"? 

If thoughtful people could only release themselves 
from the despotism of inherited prejudices, and be 
guided by their own good sense and natural affec- 
tion, prayers for the dead would soon be as fervently 
offered as prayers for the living. Evidences of this 
frequently break out, in times of extremity and sor- 
rowful bereavement, even from the lips of many 
whose Creed would denounce all intercession for 
the departed as a baleful superstition. There is 
hope that the day is not far off, when the golden 
cord of sympathy between " living saints and dead," 
which Protestantism so ruthlessly snapped asunder, 
will be reunited, and when earth and Paradise will 



246 Episodes in Clerical and Parish Life. 

again resound with mutual prayers for the bliss of 
God's elect.* 

* " There is something very like a prayer for the dead in the 
record of the raising of the widow's dead child by the prophet 
Elijah, 1 Kings, xvii. 21, 22. " And he stretched himself 
upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and 
said, ' O Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul 
cojne into him agai?t. y And the Lord heard the voice of 
Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he 
revived." Dr. Clarke, the Methodist Commentator, remarks 
that though the Hebrew word (nephesh) here used " may 
sometimes signify the life j yet, does not this imply that the 
spirit must take possession of the body, in order to produce 
and maintain the flame of animal life ?"."'... The words 
and mode of expression here appear to me a strong proof, 
not only of the existence of an immortal and immaterial 
spirit in man, but also that that spirit can and does exist in 
a separate state from the body." Elijah's prayer, therefore, 
took effect on the " departed spirit " of the child. 



I 

I 
I 



1 



